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HISTORY 

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CHEROKEE COUNTY 

(TEXAS) 


'Ey 

Hattie Joplin (Mrs. V. R. ) Roach 

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SOUTHWEST PRESS 

Dallas, Texas 




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Copyright 1934 
SOUTHWEST PRESS, Inc. 


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79034 

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Dedicated to 

Mrs. Melvina Chessher 
Cherokee County’s Oldest Citizen 
who 

Celebrated Her 101st Birthday 


November 21, 1934 



PROCLAMATION 


Whereas, It has been the will of Almighty God to bestow 
upon Mrs. Melvina Chessher the abundance of a life far beyond 
the span of three score years and ten, and because of the fullness 
of her spirit has endowed her with one hundred years of life, 
love and service; and 

Whereas, Her life has been devoted to every noble cause and 
aim that would bring gladness and sunshine into the lives of those 
about her, contributing much throughout all the years, as she 
has watched generation after generation come and go, in the 
establishment and maintenance of those ideals and principles, 
by example and by precept, which have led us onward toward 
a greater spiritual and intellectual attainment; and 

Whereas, Her influence, her counsel, and her loving kindness 
have made an indelible imprint upon the minds and hearts of all, 
as she has lived her simple, wholesome life, amid the many storms 
and conflicts along the way as she has viewed the progress of 
a century: 

I, therefore, out of the esteem and affection in which she is held 
by every citizen of this community, proclaim Tuesday, November 
21st, her one hundredth birthday, as “Mother Chessher Day” 
in Jacksonville, and beseech each and every citizen to reverence 
it in appropriate observance. 


T. E. Acker, Mayor 

City of Jacksonville, Texas. 


November, 1933. 
















♦ 























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• 'Xvi 






Mrs. Melvina Chessher 





























































































. 
































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CONTENTS 

PREFACE 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Indian Trails -------- - 1 

II Early Colonization - -- -- -- 15 

III Organization and Early Development - - - 32 

IV Early Development (Continued) - 42 

V Snapshots - -- -- -- -- 54 

VI The Civil War.61 

VII Improved Transportation Facilities - - - - 69 

VIII Development of Natural Resources—Iron - 78 

IX Development of Natural Resources— 

Timber and Oil - -- -- -- 8 7 

X Agricultural Development ------ 94 

XI Educational Progress and Social Changes - - 103 

XII Banks.113 

XIII The World War and After.120 

XIV Cherokee Towns - -- -- -- - 124 

XV Cherokee Towns (Continued) ----- 140 

XVI Two Governor Sons - - - - - - - 151 

Appendix A—Representative Pioneers - - - 154 

Appendix B—Cherokee County Officials (1934) - 168 

Bibliography - -- -- -- --169 

Index - - -.- 171 


































LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Mrs. Melvina Chessher .iv 

Captain and Mrs. Henry Berryman; Forest Hill .... 19 

Monument, Cook's Fort.28 

Original Rusk Town Site. 33 

Larissa College; J. P. Gibson Home, Rusk.44 

Andrew Jackson.48 

Southern Hotel; Tassie Belle Furnace.82 

John B. Long; Richard B. Reagan.100 

Samuel A. Willson; Frank B. Guinn.110 

Jacksonville Pioneers.133 

Governor Hogg Banquet Menu and Program.153 

William A. Brown; George A. Newton.156 

























PREFACE 


This volume has been written with the hope of better acquaint¬ 
ing the present, as well as future, generations with the splendid 
heritage which is theirs. It was begun as a history of Rusk. At 
the request of J. A. Templeton and F. B. Guinn (both now 
deceased) it was expanded into a history of the county. The 
author is indebted to them for invaluable aid and encouragement. 
Although the number makes individual mention impossible, she 
also wishes to express appreciation of the assistance rendered 
by all those who have so graciously taken time for reminiscence 
and tendered the use of treasured documents and newspapers 
of pioneer days. Without their cooperation this volume could 
never have been written. To her sister-in-law, Mrs. John F. Joplin, 
she is also indebted for valuable criticism. 

Believing many readers find footnotes a detraction, the author 
has reduced them to a minimum. Much care, however, has been 
taken to exclude erroneous statements. Sources of information 
are cited in the bibliography. 

In some chapters the author has incorporated parts of her own 
feature stories previously furnished newspapers, the publishers 
having kindly granted permission to do so. 





































CHAPTER I 


Indian Trails 

“Go shee peevie as she prom o long, 

Go shee peevie as she prom o long, 

She neerinee, she neeshe gayshee, 

Palagoshe peevie as she prom o long ” 1 

Through the night the sound of this melancholy Indian chant 
filled the air. “General” Bowles, the most loved chief, was dead. 

Prophetic, indeed, had been the “General’s” reply to President 
Mirabeau B. Lamar’s decree of Cherokee banishment—“I am an 
old man. I shall not live much longer. If I fight, the white man 
will kill me. If I refuse to fight, my people will kill me. But for 
a long time I have led my people and I must still stand by them.” 2 

Very swiftly war had come. The victorious Texans were now 
encamped on one side of a blood-stained field where a bullet had 
pierced the brain of the rugged old chief. Beyond the scene 
of their defeat arose the wailing voices of his people. 

But let us go back to the beginning of the Indian story which 
forms a prologue to the history of the white man’s achievement 
in Cherokee County. 

One finds Cherokee County a part of the Hasinai Confederacy, 
a group of intelligent Indian tribes who lived in large, communal, 
grass lodges and raised beans, maize, gourds and sunflowers. 

To the Hasinai village in what is now Mound Prairie, 3 two 
and one-half miles east of the Neches River, came the French 
explorer, Robert de La Salle, in 1686. Retracing his course on 
his last expedition from his newly established fort, St. Louis 
on Matagorda Bay, he again reached the Hasinai country in 1687. 

1 Stanley, Mildred: Cherokee Indians in Smith County. Texas History Teach¬ 
ers’ Bulletin, p. 125, October 22, 1924. These words represent merely the sound 
of the chant as recalled by Mrs. Fannie Moore of Tyler. 

2 This speech was preserved by John H. Reagan, who heard Bowles make it. 

3 The first reference to these mysterious mounds which have given the prairie 
its name seems to have been made by Father Massanet in 1778. They are sup¬ 
posed to have been Indian temple sites. 

1 



2 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Indeed, according to the notes of his historian, Henri Joutel, and 
of Father Anastacio Douay, the ambush shot which killed the 
valiant Frenchman on March 19, 1687, may have been fired 
on Cherokee County soil. If so, the place was on Bowles Creek 
between the present town of Alto and Mound Prairie. 

Although the first effort of the French to gain a foothold on 
Texas soil ended with La Salle’s tragic death, continued French 
claims aroused the Spaniards to send an expedition from Mexico 
in search of the French fort. Thus the Spaniards also met the 
Hasinai and called them Tejas (friends), 4 the name afterward 
applied to the Spanish province and finally to our own state. 
Seeing in the Tejas valuable allies, the Spaniards began building 
missions which served as centers of their efforts to christianize 
the Indians and enlist them in their far-flung contest for commerce 
and empire. Some writers locate the San Francisco mission west 
of Alto. 

With the decrease of danger from the French, however, 
Spanish interest declined and her garrisons and missions were 
finally withdrawn from East Texas. The Tejas, reduced in num¬ 
bers by the ravages of diseases contracted from the white men, 
readily gave place to the next settlers on their soil—the Cherokee 
Indians. 

The westward trek of the Cherokees had begun at the close 
of the American Revolution. Through the years, as the area 
of American civilization was extended, one dissatisfied band 
after another followed the westward trail. In the winter of 
1819-20, about the time Moses Austin was journeying to San 
Antonio to obtain a grant of land for his proposed colony, the 
Cherokees first found refuge in Texas. By 1822, when Chief 
Bowles led his band into the Nacogdoches country, the Mexican 
governor reported one hundred warriors and two hundred women 
and children within Texas borders. New bands continued to join 
their kinsmen until the tribe occupied the land north of the old 
San Antonio road (now the King’s Highway), between the 
Neches River on the west and the Angelina River on the east, 
territory now comprising Cherokee and Smith counties, together 
with parts of Gregg, Rusk and Van Zandt counties. Until the 
Texas Revolution they peacefully engaged in a primitive agri¬ 
culture to which the rich, red soil was well adapted. 

In 1821, Mexico, long in revolution, secured her freedom from 

4 The name Tejas had been variously applied to a large group of allied tribes 
before the coming of the Spaniards. They narrowed the use of the term to the 
Hasinai. 



INDIAN TRAILS 


3 


Spain. Because of this change in government and because of past 
experience in the land business, the Indians determined to secure 
legal title to the domain hitherto claimed by right of occupancy, 
supplemented in part by permits from Spanish officials. From 
1822 to 1835 Cherokee chiefs made frequent attempts, including 
two trips to the capital, to obtain a clear title from the Mexican 
government. 

While the central government postponed action, the local situa¬ 
tion was rapidly reaching a crisis. Within a month after the 
passage of the Coahuila and Texas colonization law of March 24, 
1825, contracts had been approved authorizing the introduction 
of three thousand families, some from Mexico and some from 
the United States. Eight hundred of these were to settle within 
a district including the land occupied by the Cherokees. Once 
more the dreaded American pioneer was about to gain a foot¬ 
hold at the Indians’ very doors. Having failed to obtain land 
titles peaceably, Chief Field became leader of a faction ready 
to use force. 

At this juncture, however, the arrival of Chief John Dunn 
Hunter gave a new turn to Cherokee affairs. E. W. Winkler says 
of this remarkable man—“Of white parentage, he was reared 
by the Indians, educated along the Mississippi River, wrote a book 
in New York City, was lionized in London, came to Texas to 
civilize the Indians and lost his life in an uprising against the 
Mexican authorities.” Believing that war, with their one hundred 
and sixty warriors and the uncertain alliance of the wild tribes, 
would prove futile, Hunter counseled friendship with local author¬ 
ities and renewal of effort to obtain titles, in the interest of which 
he himself went to Mexico City. He, too, failed. The choice now 
lay between return to the United States and armed resistance 
to Mexico. 

The following speech, also recorded by E. W. Winkler, is said 
to have been delivered by Chief Field: 

“In my old days I traveled two thousand miles to the City of 
Mexico to beg some lands to settle a poor orphan tribe of red 
people that looked up to me for protection. I was promised lands 
for them after staying one year in Mexico and spending all I had. 
I then came to my people and waited two years and then sent 
Mr. Hunter again after selling my stock to provide money for 
his expenses. When he got there, he stated his mission to the 
government. They said they knew nothing of this Richard Field 
and treated him with contempt. I am a red man and a man of 
honor and can’t be imposed on this way. We will lift up our 


4 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


tomahawks and fight for land with all those friendly tribes who 
wish land also. If I am beaten I will resign to fate and if not 
I will hold lands by the force of my red warriors.” 

The council voted for immediate attack on the neighboring 
colonists. 

Before hostilities began, however, John Dunn Hunter arranged 
an alliance with the Edwards brothers who, angry over alleged 
infringements of their colonization contract in the Nacogdoches 
country, were soon to be leaders of the Fredonian rebellion. 
Despite Stephen F. Austin’s warning against the futility of such 
a course, the Cherokees made a treaty with the Fredonians, 
December, 1826, whereby, in return for aid in the rebellion 
against the Mexican government, Cherokee claims would be 
recognized and a boundary line established between the whites 
and the Indians, giving the latter all the northern part of Texas. 

In this crisis Peter Ellis Bean, Indian agent for the Mexican 
government, persuaded Chief Bowles to abandon the insurgents 
and propitiate the government by sacrificing Hunter and Field. 
Hunter was murdered within twenty-five miles of Nacogdoches. 
Field fled but was overtaken and suffered a similar fate. 

Bowles’ loyalty, however, availed nothing. During the next 
nine years settlement was again and again deferred. When the 
act of the Consultation, a provisional government which preceded 
the Republic, forbade the further issuance of valid land grants 
by Mexican authorities, the Cherokee title was still without a 
legal stamp. 

Before following Cherokee fortunes through the period of the 
Texas Republic, chronology demands an account of an event in 
which the Indians had no part except as onlookers, the “Battle 
of Nacogdoches,” which ended on Cherokee soil, August 4, 1832. 

Colonel Jose de las Piedras, commander of the garrison at 
Nacogdoches, had alarmed the American settlers by his opposition 
to the colonization law of 1825 and his pro-Indian policy. When 
he refused to take an oath of loyalty to Santa Anna 5 and the 
Constitution of 1824, some two hundred colonists, under the 
command of Colonel John W. Bullock, attacked and defeated 
Piedras’ forces, August 2, 1832. 

Under cover of darkness Colonel Piedras abandoned his dead 
and wounded, his public stores and clothing, threw his ammuni¬ 
tion reserves into wells and slipped away. Upon discovery of the 

6 Strange as it now seems, to Texans of 1832 Santa Anna was the perfect 
patriot. 



INDIAN TRAILS 


5 


Mexican retreat a volunteer detachment started in pursuit. After 
a slight skirmish at Moral Creek, a hasty detour placed the Tex¬ 
ans in front of the fugitives, a little west of the Angelina River. 
Crossing the river under the command of Sergeant Marcos, the 
Mexican advance guard stopped to allow their horses to drink. 
A raking fire from ambush greeted them. Marcos fell but Colonel 
Piedras forced the passage of the river and the Texans withdrew. 
The Mexicans spent the night at the Durst home on the hill just 
west of the Angelina, while the Texans prepared another ambush 
still farther west. 

Historians disagree as to who led the Texans and which 
crossing was the site of the ambush. Yoakum, who states that 
his account is based on the report of A. Sterne who took part 
in the battle, says James Bowie, of Alamo fame, led the Texans 
in a detour by the lower Douglas road and the Mexicans spent 
the night following the ambush at the Durst home, west of the 
river. Since Colonel John Durst never lived in Cherokee County 
and his brother, Joseph Durst, did live west of the river on the 
old San Antonio road, this apparently locates the battle at the 
Joseph Durst crossing on what is now the King's Highway. Alex¬ 
ander Horton, another member of the volunteer force, says James 
Carter, an old Nacogdoches citizen, led the detachment, Bowie 
arriving after the battle. He agrees, however, that Colonel Piedras 
took refuge in the Joseph Durst house. A second group of writers 
state that Piedras left Nacogdoches by the lower road and the 
ambush occurred at the John Durst crossing some six miles south 
of the King's Highway, now known as the Hinckley bridge 
crossing. If this is the correct location, the Colonel evidently made 
a detour after forcing the passage of the river. 

When the Mexicans failed to appear on the morning of the 
4th, the Texans rode back to the river. Here they were met by a 
white flag and a formal proposal of surrender. After the defeat 
of Colonel Piedras the remaining Mexican garrisons, one after 
another, marched away to Mexico and for a time Texas was free 
from annoyance. Santa Anna could ill afford to punish the men 
who had helped him. 

Nevertheless, the “Battle of Nacogdoches," together with the 
conflicts at Velasco and Anahuac earlier in 1832, really marks 
the beginning of the Texas Revolution. Mexican fears that the 
colonists would win Texas, first definitely aroused by the Fre- 
donian rebellion, were now crystallized into firm conviction that 
the Texans were bent on seizing the province. The colonists, con¬ 
fident of their ability to care for themselves, viewed the govern- 


6 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


ment with growing contempt. Henceforth the spirit of revolution 
gained rapid momentum, which carried it to San Jacinto. 

According to Colonel Bullock, Chief Bowles and some sixty 
well-armed Cherokee warriors were within gunshot at the time 
of the river attack on Colonel Piedras. In his opinion they would 
have joined the Mexicans had the tide appeared to be going 
in their favor. 

At the outbreak of hostilities between Texas and Mexico both 
sides, conscious of the strategical position of the Cherokees, made 
an effort to gain their friendship. The Texans were successful, 
the Houston-Forbes treaty being signed February 23, 1836. 6 This 
secured the neutrality of the Cherokees and made it possible for 
East Texas soldiers to join General Houston’s army without fear 
of an Indian massacre of their families. When the Convention 
met in March, however, more pressing business prevented the 
submission of the treaty and it failed to secure ratification. On 
December 26, 1837, the Senate declared it null and void. After 
much debate it was decided to permit the Indians to continue 
to occupy the lands without titles. 

Matters rested thus until the reopening of the Land Office early 
in 1838, which was the signal for locators and surveyors to renew 
operations beyond the white settlements. This staking of new 
claims further antagonized the Indian occupants of the coveted 
acres, making them more susceptible to the intrigues of Mexican 
agents constantly working among them and increasing their 
depredations. 

Although Chief Bowles had contended that the thefts and 
murders charged against his people were committed by wild tribes 
passing through their territory, the Cherokees were undeniably 
guilty of the massacre of the Killough, Wood and Williams 
families, the most horrible of all East Texas Indian tragedies. 
Partially out of this massacre came a change in Indian policy, 
resulting in the expulsion of the Cherokees. 

Emigrating from Talladega County, Alabama, the Isaac Kil- 
loughs, together with the families of four sons, Isaac Jr., Allen, 
Samuel and Nathaniel, and two daughters, Mrs. George Wood 
and Mrs. Owen Williams, pitched camp on Christmas Eve, 1837, 
about five miles west of the present site of Mt. Selman. While 
Santa Claus may have failed to get the address of the little Kil- 

6 Gammel: Laws of Texas, Vol. I, p. 546. This treaty fulfilled the pledges 
made by the provisional government which preceded the Republic, acknowledging 
the validity of Cherokee titles and declaring null and void all land grants made 
in the territory since their settlement. 



INDIAN TRAILS 


7 


loughs, Woods and Williams, their Christmas Day was full of 
cheer. The long drive was over. There was plenty of room to 
romp and play. The grown-ups, too, rejoiced over what they 
found at the end of the journey—rich, red soil, timber, game, 
fish, wild fruits, salt springs and iron ore. Well satisfied, they set 
to work hewing logs for houses, clearing land and planting crops. 

Soon Cupid found them out. Winsome Elizabeth Killough, 
daughter of Isaac, Sr., promised to marry Barakias Williams, 
brother-in-law to her sister Polly. Wedding plans were gaily 
made. From their stores, sisters and sisters-in-law brought treas¬ 
ured cloth. Frontier or no frontier, Elizabeth must have a trous¬ 
seau. As soon as the crops were laid by another cabin would be 
built on a carefully chosen site, convenient to the spring. When 
the harvest was over all would join in the celebration of this 
first wedding. 

In August, however, life was rudely interrupted by the insolent 
threats of Dog Shoot and a band of Cherokee warriors bent on 
revenge against colonists within their borders. Isaac Killough, Sr., 
father, father-in-law or grandfather to all save three members 
of the colony, felt double responsibility for their safety. A council 
was called. Discretion was decided to be the better part of valor. 
Sorrowfully the little group gathered together their movable pos¬ 
sessions and took refuge in Nacogdoches territory. 

Such sturdy spirits, however, could not be reconciled to the loss 
of the fruits of their clearing and planting. General Rusk had 
scattered the insurgents under Cordova. Perhaps the Cherokees 
had grown less violent. At least the crops were worth taking a 
chance to save. So in the fall, not only the men but the women 
and children, ventured back to gather what might be left in their 
fields. The Indians, somewhat pacified, agreed that they might 
stay “until the first white frost.” All went well until the last 
day of the harvest. Then the blow fell. 

It was afternoon, October 5, 1838. A party of his kinsmen had 
started across the creek to help Nathaniel Killough pull the 
remainder of his corn. Since there were only about two loads and 
their stay would be brief, they departed from their custom and 
left their guns at home. As a result they never reached the corn¬ 
field. Ambushed by a party of Mexicans and Indians while pass¬ 
ing through the swamp, all the harvesters were killed. 

Nathaniel Killough, while waiting for the arrival of his help¬ 
ers, had gone to the spring to water his horse. The sound of firing 
told all too plainly what was happening at the creek. Back to the 
house he went, on a run, the Indians close at his heels. No time 


8 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


for his wife and baby to mount. The horse was abandoned. 
Through the shelter of a canefield they made their escape to the 
home of a friendly Indian, secured another horse and finally 
reached Lacy’s Fort, two miles west of the present Alto. 

Narcissa Killough, in her cabin north of the creek, was wash¬ 
ing the last of the dinner dishes and gaily humming a tune. And 
much cause she had for singing. The days of suspense were 
almost over. No more straining of ears to catch the first sound 
of Indian war whoops. No more tortuous waiting for Samuel’s 
return. In an hour or two he would be home. Tomorrow or the 
next day, they would doubtless be on their way to Nacogdoches 
and safety. 

A shot, another, and still another! The dreaded ambush! And 
Samuel’s gun on the rack! For one brief second a numbing horror 
clogged Narcissa’s feet. Then she snatched baby William from his 
crib. She was running toward the creek. Did Samuel live? She 
must know. Barakias Williams and Jane Killough (Mrs. Isaac 
Killough, Jr.) were running with her. Now the Indians were 
coming toward them. The next moment the victorious ambush- 
ers swept past and shot Barakias to death. 

On the northern edge of the settlement was the home of Owen 
and Polly Williams. Rheumatism had kept Owen from helping 
with the harvest. Leaving him with his brother Elbert and the 
younger children, Mrs. Williams and the oldest daughter, Eliza¬ 
beth, had chosen this fatal afternoon to make a visit. When the 
men walked into the ambush, mother and daughter were on their 
way to the Isaac Killoughs, Sr. As the first shots shattered the 
stillness, they stopped. In a moment straining eyes discovered 
Elizabeth Killough and her brother Allen’s family running toward 
the woods. Elizabeth Williams joined them in their flight. Not 
one of the group was ever seen or heard of again. The wedding 
dress was never needed. 

Polly Williams fled homeward. Elbert, alarmed by the firing, 
had three horses at the gate. Minutes were precious. Already 
t war whoops were close at hand. Polly helped throw saddles into 
place. Owen and the children were mounted. The Indians were in 
sight, yet once more Polly ran into the house. No use to leave 
their pocketbooks — Owen’s, Elbert’s and Barakias’. All had 
money. At last they were off, unharmed by the shots which thickly 
pursued them. 7 

7 This account of the Williams family is based on a story told by Ferd L. 
Williams of Jacksonville to J. L. Brown and recorded in the latter’s volume of 
Larissa reminiscences. 



INDIAN TRAILS 


9 


The Wood family was not so fortunate. Aiter reaching a place 
of temporary safety, the father went back to the house to get 
provisions. He was instantly killed and the family’s hiding-place 
soon discovered. All were carried away and only one of the ill- 
fated group was ever heard of again. It is said that a small son 
was adopted by the tribe and later made a chief. 

As the warriors swept northward, Narcissa and Jane had been 
left to go on across the creek, unmolested. Hurriedly, frantically 
they searched for the loved ones they hoped, yet feared, to see. 
Only two could they find. Samuel lay in the small branch where he 
had fallen. And there Narcissa had to leave him. In the yard of 
their home Mrs. Isaac Killough, Sr., kept watch over her dead 
husband. She had begged his murderers to kill her, too, but with 
broken English curses they had only ordered her into the house. 
Since the old man was too heavy for the women to carry, they 
could do no more than cover him with a quilt, weighted down 
with rails, and hasten back to Narcissa’s house. 

Here they met Dog Shoot and two other warriors who ordered 
them to start on a two-mile walk to the house of Chief Benge. 
To Narcissa’s companions the future was hopeless. 

“Might as well go,” was their tearful whisper. “There’s more 
danger in refusing.” 

But such was not Narcissa’s view. What she lacked in avoirdu¬ 
pois—she weighed only ninety-four pounds—she made up in 
spirit. 

“Go, if you will,” she cried. “I’ll die first.” 

Since the men were all gone and the women were considered 
harmless, Dog Shoot had not brought his gun. 

“If I had my gun, I’d shoot you now,” he hissed. 

“Go get it,” dared the scornful Narcissa. 

Dog Shoot and his companions hurried away. 

“Now’s our chance,” encouraged the bold leader. 

Strengthened by her brave spirit, the little party, accompanied 
by a small fice dog which they could not leave and did not have 
the heart to kill, slipped away through the tall grass and hid until 
night afforded better protection for travel. 

So Dog Shoot and his warriors found the house deserted. Wild 
with rage on account of the escape of their intended victims, they 
found revenge in an orgy of destruction, ransacking the premises, 
ripping open feather beds, turning everything upside down and 
finally setting fire to the house. From their place of concealment 
the heart-broken women listened to the savage yells and watched 


10 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


the smoke arising from the burning house. Practical Narcissa 
rejoiced that she had saved her land papers. 

When night came they, too, started on the long journey to 
Lacy’s Fort, started without food on a journey menaced by 
prowling Indians and wild beasts. One cry of the baby or one 
bark of the dog would probably have proved fatal. But both baby 
and dog seemed aware of danger. Not a whimper was heard. 

On the third morning hunger made them risk daytime travel. 
A noise made them look back. There stood an Indian with a gun 
on his shoulder. When the women screamed he ran and showed 
them it was empty. Unable to speak English, he tried by signs to 
have them turn and follow a dimmer path to the left. They re¬ 
fused. Getting in the trail ahead of them, he loaded his gun. 
Either way, death seemed certain. They decided to obey him. 
After a few minutes’ travel they reached an Indian camp of 
painted warriors. Even Narcissa’s brave heart quailed. But in¬ 
stead of expected death, they found themselves among friends; 
found that they had been saved from ambush a half-mile farther 
along the path they had been following. 

Refreshed by food and a night’s rest, the fugitives continued 
the journey on Indian horses. This assistance probably saved the 
life of Mrs. Jane Killough, who was expecting her first baby in 
a few weeks. 

After surviving all these harrowing experiences, they came 
near death in the very shadow of the fort, which they reached 
after dark. In their excitement and relief over having reached 
safety, they failed to answer the challenge of “Who’s there?” 

Three times they were hailed before shouting, “Women from 
Saline,” just in time to prevent disaster. 

As the news of the massacre spread, all Texas seethed with 
indignation. Troops under command of General Thomas J. Rusk 
were sent in pursuit of the offending band, a pursuit rendered 
difficult by constant shifting of the Indian camp in heavily-wooded 
areas. 

Leaving his wife and baby in safety at Lacy’s Fort, Nathaniel 
Killough joined the expedition and was wounded at the battle of 
Kickapoo in Anderson County, October 16, 1838. Later he guided 
a detachment detailed to search for the bodies of his kinsmen. 
Although, according to reports, eighteen settlers were missing, 
only a few bodies could be found. Only one of these could be 
positively identified, Samuel Killough being recognized by a gold 
tooth. Under a towering oak, long since fallen, one grave was 
dug. In it, with simple ceremony grim-faced soldiers gently laid 


INDIAN TRAILS 


11 


the bleaching bones. 8 Before another year had gone, the Cherokees 
paid heavily for all their wrong-doing. Their chief lay dead on a 
blood-stained field and only a remnant of his tribe was left to 
seek refuge beyond the Texas line. 

After peace was restored, Nathaniel Killough returned to the 
settlement, rebuilt the partially-burned house of Samuel Killough 
and amassed considerable wealth, both in acres and in slaves. He 
died in 1865 and was buried beside the massacre victims. The little 
daughter, who fled with him, later became Mrs. C. W. Matthews 
of Garden Valley, Smith County. Her death in 1925 marked the 
passing of the last survivor of that October tragedy. 

Narcissa and Jane afterward married again and also returned 
to the scene of their sorrow. Here baby William grew to man¬ 
hood. Near by he spent his last years, “Uncle Billie” to hundreds 
of devoted friends. By strange coincidence, death claimed him, 
October 5, 1918, the eightieth anniversary of that perilous flight. 
The only Killough now living in the county is Uncle Billie’s 
snowy-haired daughter, Mrs. W. F. Partlow of Mt. Selman. One 
of her treasures is a yellowed manuscript, the story of the 
massacre as it was told by her grandmother Narcissa and written 
by her father, which has served as a basis for this account of the 
tragedy. 

In 1934, through an appropriation of funds by the Civil Works 
Administration, the long-neglected Killough cemetery was en¬ 
closed by a rock fence and a twenty-five-foot monument of native 
stone erected over the grave of the massacre victims. Today it is 
recognized as one of the Texas shrines. 

Thus, because of the Killough tragedy and similar happenings, 
President Houston, ever the staunch friend of the Indians, saw his 
administration draw to a close without much visible fruit of his 
efforts at conciliation. The white man, coming in ever increasing 
numbers, resented the Indian’s holding land which might otherwise 
become his own fertile fields and pastures. The Indian, resenting 
what he considered encroachment on his rightful possessions, re¬ 
taliated by stealing cattle and killing settlers. The stronger the 
government grew, the more general became the sentiment that 
war should be waged against the perpetrators of these outrages. 

8 No official list of the victims has been found. From the Probate Court Min¬ 
utes one learns that Isaac Sr., Isaac Jr., Allen and Samuel Killough and George 
W. Wood were killed. Barakias Williams is also known to have been shot. 
Elizabeth Killough, Elizabeth Williams, Mrs. Allen Killough, and Mrs. George 
W. Wood are known to have been missing. The author has found no official 
record of the names and the number of the Allen Killough and the Wood 
children. 



12 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


During the administration of President Mirabeau B. Lamar 
the friction between the races reached a climax. In June, 1839, 
Indian Agent Martin Lacy was sent to Chief Bowles to announce 
that the Cherokees must pay the penalty for wrong-doing by 
removal beyond Red River; peaceably if they would, forcibly if 
need be; that if they chose to go peaceably they might take their 
movable property and would be paid for the improvements on the 
land at a fair price to be fixed by a commission. 

John H. Reagan, then a young man recently come to Texas, 
accompanied Agent Lacy. To him we are indebted for an account 
of the interview, which proceeded with dignity and frankness 
despite neither of the principals being able to understand the other. 

9 Seating his visitors on a log by the spring near his house, 
Chief Bowles listened to the half-breed Codra interpret the Presi¬ 
dent's stern indictment of his people and bravely replied in their 
defense, asking for time to consult his chiefs and headmen. Ten 
days later his guests returned to hear the final answer to the 
decree of banishment. Seated in the same place, the chief sorrow¬ 
fully reported that his council had voted war. His speech was 
concluded with the prophecy quoted at the beginning of the 
chapter. 

The long-pending conflict, the so-called “Cherokee War,” 
which was to free East Texas from the Indians, swiftly followed. 
A preliminary engagement, July 15, 1839, near Chandler in 
Henderson County, resulted in a Cherokee retreat up Battle 
Creek at sundown. The decisive battle was fought in Van Zandt 
County the next day. 9 10 

Among the slain was “General” Bowles. Wearing a silk vest, 
military hat, sword and sash, which had been gifts from his 
friend, Sam Houston, the gallant old leader made an easy target 
as he rode his blaze-face horse up and down the line, futilely 
urging a last charge. The victorious Texans encamped that night 
near the dense woods of the Neches River bottom in which the 
Indians had taken refuge. The next morning the Cherokees were 


9 The exact site of this interview has been a matter of disagreement. Doctor 
Albert Woldert, considered an authority on Cherokee affairs, locates it on the 
J. J. Tullis farm on the Tillman Walters survey. Many old settlers contend it 
was on the Blanton farm on the Van Sickle survey. The latter has been marked 
by the Rusk Boy Scouts. Both sites are near Redlawn. 

10 The location of this battle, sometimes confused with the battle of Kickapoo 
in Anderson County, is also a subject of disagreement. Doctor Woldert places it 
on what is now known as the North Hambrick tract, four miles north of the 
Henderson County line. 



INDIAN TRAILS 


13 


gone. Eventually the scattered remnants of the tribe joined their 
kinsmen in Oklahoma. 

Such, in brief, is the story of our pioneer-Indian conflict. It 
should be emphasized, however, that not all the association be¬ 
tween the red men and the white was hostile. Personal friendships 
existed and there was much peaceful trade. White friends are 
known to have accepted the hospitality of Chief Bowles who 
enjoyed serving his venison stew with a solid silver spoon which 
had been a gift from Andrew Jackson. Bowles house, built of 
cedar poles covered with boards, burned after the Indians were 
driven away. 

Although the red men are gone, their presence has left its 
stamp, not only in the name of the county itself but in the names 
of several of its streams. Bowles Creek and Bowles Spring take 
their name from the best-loved of Cherokee chiefs. One-Eye 
Creek, south of Rusk, bears the name of a noted Cherokee living 
some two and one-half miles southeast of Rusk on the Thomas 
J. Timmons survey. Deeds often refer to One-Eye Village. 
Bean, One-Arm and Tales creeks, west of Rusk, also take their 
names from Cherokee chiefs. 

Some of the first settlers in the ’40s actually lived in the houses 
which had been occupied by Indians. Peach orchards were usually 
found about Indian villages which continued to afford fruit for 
white settlers. Old-timers tell of their families starting orchards 
with trees taken from these Indian orchards. For many years 
settlers frequently found Indian utensils which had been hidden 
in hollow trees and stumps. Even Indians themselves slipped back 
in later years to recover possessions concealed at the time of their 
hurried flight. Cherokee farmers on village sites still plow up 
Indian relics. 

Historians differ in their attitude toward the Cherokee chapter 
in Texas history. According to one group, including Yoakum, the 
Texas government broke faith with the Cherokees when the 
treaty of 1836, which by a recognition of their land claims had 
secured their neutrality in the perilous days of the Revolution, 
was declared null and void. Another group not only denies the 
existence of any valid basis for such claims, but maintains, that 
had they really existed the Indians’ relation with the Mexicans 
would in any event have nullified them. Just how far the tribe 
was influenced by the correspondence which undoubtedly was 
carried on with Mexican emissaries the author cannot determine, 


14 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


but there is much evidence to substantiate the Cherokee claim 
to the county. 11 

Conceding that, after their refusal to accept the terms of the 
commissioners, safety demanded the removal of the Cherokees 
by force, it should in justice be stated that not all the wrong-doing 
should be charged to the red men. “Between the Mexican emis¬ 
saries on the one hand, mischievous Indians on the other, and 
the grasping desire of unprincipled land-grabbers for their terri¬ 
tory, one wrong produced a counter wrong until blood flowed and 
women and children were sacrificed by the more lawless of the 
Indians. All the Indians were not bad, nor all the whites good.” 12 


11 As an epilogue to the Cherokee drama the Indians attempted a suit in 1921, 
asking for compensation for their ancestors having been dispossessed in 1839. 
Although the Supreme Court refused permission to file the suit on the ground 
that the Cherokee Nation was not a foreign nation in the sense in which that 
term is used in the Constitution, the Indians apparently have never abandoned 
hopes of success through legislative action. 

12 Brown: History of Texas, Vol. II, p. 164. 



CHAPTER II 


Early Colonization 

As already shown, adventurous Americans took root on 
Cherokee soil long before the Indians were driven beyond its 
borders. Stephen F. Austin’s advertising for his three hundred 
colonists, followed by the passage of the national and state coloni¬ 
zation laws of 1824-25, which removed the danger of disposses¬ 
sion by the government, gave an impetus to immigration which 
le d t o the relatively rapid settlement of the Nacogdoches district. 

The State of Coahuila and Texas granted a total of fifty-six 
titles to sixty-five and one-half leagues of land within the present 
boundaries of Cherokee County. Only a part of the interesting 
story of these grants can be related here. 

Quite naturally, the earliest grants bordered the “Road to 
Bexar,” also known as the old San Antonio road, a link in the 
historic Camino del Rey (now the King’s Highway), which for 
more than a century had been the chief line of travel through 
Texas. 

Although not patented until 1832 and then by another govern¬ 
ment to another man, the first grant, referred to in early deeds 
as the Barr and Davenport grant, bordering the Angelina River 
south of the San Antonio road, was made by the Spanish gov¬ 
ernment in 1798. Citizen and Trader William Barr and Citizen 
and Trader Samuel Davenport, 1 among the first Americans to 
risk life in Texas, were wealthy planters and partners in a large 
trading post for furs and pelts in Nacogdoches. 

William Barr, an Irishman by birth, came to Texas to get 
stock to carry to his Pittsburgh home and found the country so 
delightful that he settled at Nacogdoches. The commandant soon 
appointed him official Indian trader. In 1801 he was a volunteer 
in the expedition sent to capture Philip Nolan. A few years later 
the Spanish government granted him permission to establish a 
settlement at the abandoned presidio of Orcoquisac near the 
Angelina River. 

1 These first American owners of Cherokee soil had been granted Spanish 
citizenship. 


15 



16 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Samuel Davenport, leaving his Pennsylvania home an orphan 
of sixteen, soon settled in the Spanish province of Louisiana and 
found employment in a trading company. Later he entered the 
trading business for himself and also acquired a large plantation 
near Natchitoches. In 1794 he moved his headquarters to Nacog¬ 
doches. Five years later, according to his own statement, his good 
conduct overcame official suspicion and he was permitted to 
become a partner of William Barr, the accredited Indian agent. He 
was also quartermaster for the Magee expedition and a member 
of the Supreme Council established by General James Long. 
Pressure of business, however, did not prevent his being the leader 
in Nacogdoches social life, a much sought dinner guest and dance 
partner. 

Before all the intricate steps necessary to the perfection of a 
Spanish title had been taken, Spain was overthrown by the Mexi¬ 
can revolutionists, Barr and Davenport died and, in some manner, 
the Davenport heirs acquired the grant. In 1829 they used the 
property to settle a debt to the attorney of the Barr and Davenport 
firm. Thus on May 9, 1832, Constitutional Alcalde Encarnacion 
Chirino, acting for the Supreme Government of the State of 
Coahuila and Texas, patented the vast tract of nine leagues to 
John Durst. The six and one-quarter leagues located within Chero¬ 
kee County are now subdivided into hundreds of farms. 

Colonel John Durst, member of the Texas and Coahuila legis¬ 
lature in 1835 and one of the most prominent East Texas pioneers, 
came from Arkansas to Nacogdoches by way of Louisiana, where 
he settled with his older brother Joseph soon after the death of 
his parents, the Peter Jacob Dursts. Reward for various official 
services, including invaluable work as an interpreter in the Mex¬ 
ican government’s negotiations with the Indians, took the form of 
land grants. In time he became one of the most extensive of East 
Texas landholders. Although he never lived on his Cherokee 
County leagues, his favorite residence was the beautiful planta¬ 
tion home, San Patricio, just across the Angelina River at the 
present Hinckley bridge, which later became the site of Mt. 
Sterling, a noted pioneer town. From San Patricio he directed 
his Cherokee farming and sawmill business. 

Although not the first for which petition was made, the James 
Dill, or Helena Kimble, grant bears the earliest patent date. With 
it is interwoven a most colorful tale. 

Lured by reports of riches in trade, the Dills—Captain James, 
his wife and four children—left their Baltimore home to estab¬ 
lish themselves first in the Spanish province of Louisiana and 


EARLY COLONIZATION 


17 


then on old North Street in Nacogdoches in 1800. James Dill, a 
native of Pennsylvania, had taken an oath of allegiance to the 
Spanish, government in 1794. As a trader in Nacogdoches he 
soon gained high favor with the Spanish authorities. One of the 
family heirlooms, now in the possession of James Dill Berryman, 
Jr., of Alto, is an intricately carved sword presented by the gov¬ 
ernment in recognition of his fair commercial dealings. From 
1821-23 he was the Nacogdoches alcalde. He died about 1825. 

After removal to the Texas frontier for commercial gain, the 
Dills found another source of wealth which might be theirs for the 
asking—Spanish land grants. In 1802 Captain Dill, “with the 
greatest submission and humility,” petitioned the Nacogdoches 
commandant, Don Miguel Musquez, for four leagues of land 
lying west of the Angelina River and north of the old San 
Antonio road, now the King’s Highway. 

Governmental wheels, however, turned slowly. Despite the ap¬ 
proval of the commandant, the favorable report of the surveyor 
and the consent of the owners of adjacent leagues, 1809 found 
the petitioner still without formal title to the land. By 1810 the 
struggle for Mexican independence from Spain claimed the entire 
official attention and pending land grants were forgotten. During 
the course of the revolution Nacogdoches and the surrounding 
settlements were depopulated, the Dills taking refuge at Fort 
Jessup, Louisiana. 

The death of Captain Dill left his widow, according to Spanish 
custom designated by her maiden name, Helena Kimble, the task 
of obtaining recognition of her claims from the newly established 
Mexican government under the terms of the colonization law of 
1825. So in 1827 Helena Kimble once more “prayed for” her 
home. Official records furnish the following report of the formal 
transfer made by Constitutional Alcalde Jose More Acosta, July 
26, 1828: 

“I did put Helena Kimble in formal possession . . . saying to 
her in a loud and audible voice, Tn the name of the Supreme 
Government of the State of Coahuila and Texas, by virtue of the 
commission conferred upon me for the purpose by the Chief of 
this Department, I put you in possession of all tracts of land con¬ 
tained in the lines just drawn under the boundaries specified in 
these proceedings . . And the said Helena Kimble took quiet 
and peaceable possession of said tract of land, speaking aloud, 
throwing stones, pulling weeds, driving stakes and land marks 
in token of lawful and true dominion acquired of her over said 
tract of land, for which she was notified she must pay the treasurer 


18 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


of the State the fee of $30 for every one of the leagues granted 
to her in terms specified by the Colonization law . . 

Concerning Madam Dill, born Helena Kimble in 1770, very 
little is recorded. 2 One can imagine, however, her anxious con¬ 
cern for her children during those early uncertain frontier years; 
her delight at the coming of Madam Thorn and Madam Durst, 
her first Nacogdoches white women friends; the grim determina¬ 
tion with which as a widow she continued the legal battle for her 
land; the disappointment when her dream of acquiring wealth 
from a Holstein herd on her Cherokee plantation faded. 

In 1830 she began a division of the grant, her daughters receiv¬ 
ing leagues instead of acres for inheritance. To one daughter, 
Delilah, went the southeast of the four leagues. Delilah had mar¬ 
ried Joseph Durst, Indian trader for the Nacogdoches firm of 
Barr and Davenport and a prominent political figure. During the 
Edwards regime in Nacogdoches he was alcalde. The Convention 
of Nacogdoches made him a member of the Committee of Safety 
appointed in 1835. He was also one of the signers of the Houston- 
Forbes treaty with the Cherokees in 1836. For a number of years 
the Joseph Dursts lived within the present boundaries of Cherokee 
County at a beautiful plantation home, called Linwood, just west 
of the Angelina River and north of the King’s Highway, now 
known as the old Terrell home. Here they died in the middle ’40s. 
Their only child, James H. Durst, was a prominent Cherokee 
County citizen until he was made customs collector at Point Isabel 
in 1855. 

To Mary Sevier, another daughter who had married a French¬ 
man from New Orleans, was deeded the northeast league. This 
was afterward sold to General Kelsey H. Douglas. General Doug¬ 
las also purchased the northwest league which, had he not been 
killed at the battle of New Orleans, would doubtless have been 
the inheritance of Francis Dill, the only son. Casselda, the other 
daughter who had left Baltimore with the family, had married 
Lieutenant William R. Johnson of the United States army and 
for some reason was not included in the division of the grant. 
Helena, the youngest of the Dill children, born in Nacogdoches 
in 1804, found her inheritance in the southwest league. Family 
tradition tells that she was the first white child born in Texas. 

With Helena the story back tracks to Fort Jessup, frontier army 
post in Louisiana. One night in 1824 at an officers’ ball a dashing 

2 In the middle ’30s she married her second husband, William Nelson. Death 
came in 1848. Today her grave may be found under a giant, drooping cedar in 
a cornfield about three miles east of Alto, just north of the King's Highway. 




(Upper left ) Mrs. Helena Berryman, at the age of 70 
(Right) Captain Henry Berryman 
(Bottom) Forest Hill, Built 1847 







' 
















- 


















’ 






















































































EARLY COLONIZATION 


19 


young lieutenant, Henry Berryman of Virginia, spied charming 
Helena Dill from the Natchitoches (Louisiana) boarding school. 
Again and again they danced together. Three days later Lieu¬ 
tenant Berryman offered his heart and hand. Very quickly the 
youthful Helena was initiated into the everchanging life of an 
army man’s wife. 

Promotion came, but ill health forced Captain Berryman’s re¬ 
tirement. Then they came to take possession of Helena’s in¬ 
heritance in the newly organized Cherokee County, some five 
miles northeast of the present Alto. Soon slaves were felling trees 
for what was intended to be a temporary dwelling—Forest Hill. 
Later, according to the Captain’s plans, there was to be a replica 
of his Virginia mansion, built of stone. Death prevented the ful¬ 
fillment of his hopes and Berryman history has been made in the 
log structure. 

Next to building a home Captain and Mrs. Berryman were con¬ 
cerned about the development of the county’s resources. Sale of 
a part of their land at a nominal sum brought new settlers. 
Settlers required schools and churches. After donating the land for 
a building site, the owners of Forest Hill became members of the 
second oldest church in the county, now known as Old Palestine 
Church. Captain Berryman died in 1859, but through twenty-nine 
years of widowhood Helena Berryman continued to make the 
Berryman home a community center. Here thirty orphan children 
found a home. Here Helena died, March 13, 1888, and was buried 
by her husband, within a stone’s throw of the house of which 
she had so long been mistress. 

Since its first log was laid among the cedars, Forest Hill has 
been the pride of the Berryman family, carefully preserved by 
each succeeding generation, and now occupied by Mrs. Carl 
Yowell, great-granddaughter of the builder. Defiant of eighty- 
seven years of sun and storm, it stands as one of Cherokee 
County’s best-known landmarks. Its huge fireplace, many-paned 
windows and great overhead beams are as they were when Captain 
and Mrs. Berryman entertained General Zachary Taylor, General 
Joseph L. Hogg and innumerable other guests with lavish ante¬ 
bellum hospitality. Many of the family heirlooms are still among 
its furnishings. Other furniture has been made of cedar grown 
on the estate. A bathroom and electric lights are the only con¬ 
cessions to modernness. 

Another early settler was Peter Ellis Bean, also known as Ellis 
P. Bean. Many a Cherokee boy, thrilled by Bean’s adventures 


20 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


during long years of Mexican imprisonment, is unaware that his 
hero once lived in Cherokee County. Making his dramatic entrance 
into Texas in 1801, as a member of the ill-fated Philip Nolan 
expedition to hunt for wild horses, the young Tennessee soldier 
of fortune was captured and sent to Mexico. Daring escapes, al¬ 
ways followed by recapture, marked more than a decade of being 
shifted from prison to prison. Finally released on promise to aid 
the royalists against the revolutionists, he soon deserted to the 
enemy whose cause was more to his liking. Sent to the United 
States to plead the cause of the Republic, he rendered valiant 
service at the battle of New Orleans before rejoining his Mexican 
comrades. When Morelos, the gallant leader of the revolution, 
was defeated and killed in 1815, Colonel Bean—promotion had 
come—escaped to his native country. 

Having left behind him, as he thought forever, all things Mex¬ 
ican, including the beautiful Mexican lady who had become his 
wife, 3 Bean returned to his Tennessee home a miserable man. 
A kindly aunt, knowing nothing of the Mexican wedding which 
he had never mentioned, finally suggested marriage to a wealthy 
neighbor girl, Candace Midkiff. Her advice was taken, the Beans 
later moving to Arkansas. 4 5 After the success of the Mexican 
revolution made living in Mexican territory safe, they came to 
Texas, as colonists. In 1825 the Republic of Mexico rewarded 
Bean’s early service in the revolutionary army by restoring his 
commission 6 and appointing him Indian agent, in which ca¬ 
pacity he rendered valuable service by detaching the Cherokees 
from the Fredonian alliance. 

Here the domestic plot thickens. Despite his second marriage 
and the lapse of years, the Colonel still loved the Mexican lady 
who had saved his life. With official business frequently taking 
him to Mexico, visits to his Mexican wife were easily managed. 
For some years he apparently lived a Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 
existence. Finally, in 1843, he left Texas to stay. Tradition has it 

3 Refusing to be left behind, his wife had started with him on his horseback 
flight from Mexico. When their Spanish pursuers were almost upon them, 
Bean’s horse gave out. Believing the soldiers would not harm his wife, although 
capture would mean death for himself, he yielded to her entreaties, exchanged 
horses with her and escaped. 

Conversation with Mrs. Sophie Peevey of Nacogdoches. The platter used at 
the Beans’ in fare dinner became an heirloom in Mrs. Peevey’s family. 

5 Although afterward in sympathy with the Texas revolutionists, the desire to 
retain the income from this commission, together with the toll exacted by his 
fifty years of strenuous living, kept the fighting colonel out of the struggle for 
Texas independence. When the war began he asked General Thomas J. Rusk 

for a parole. 



EARLY COLONIZATION 


21 


that two slaves who did the work at Bean’s ranch camp came 
home one week-end with the report that the master had gone out 
to round up the cattle and had failed to return. Mrs. Bean sent out 
an alarm, a hunt ensued, but no trace of the missing man was 
found. His family concluded he had been killed. 

Some three years later, as the story has been handed down by 
descendants, Isaac T. Bean, a son of Peter Ellis Bean, stopped 
by the roadside, near the present Alto, to eat his lunch. A traveler 
who joined him commented upon his resemblance to a man whom 
he knew in Mexico, by the name of Peter Ellis Bean. Although 
long believing that his father was dead, Isaac was finally con¬ 
vinced by the stranger’s reference to the gold-tipped walking cane, 
the saddle and silver-mounted bridle, which had been gifts from 
James Bowie to Colonel Bean, that he was alive. Hurrying home 
with the news, he immediately started to Mexico, only to miss 
his father by three weeks. Death had ended Peter Ellis Bean’s 
turbulent career at the hacienda of his Mexican wife at Jalapa, 
October 10, 1846. 

Such is the long-accepted final chapter in the life of the doughty 
colonel. The following letter just lately discovered in a bundle of 
old receipts among a collection of her grandfather’s papers pre¬ 
served by Miss Jessie Boone of Rusk, throws new light upon 
the story: 

“Republick of Mexico 
Jalapa April 9th, 1844 
Mr. William Roark Esq. 

My old friend 

Recivd your leter by Dr. Bean and see that Sam Bean is a 
Raskel But one nows not who to trust he is a Rogue and a 
lyar But let him gow my fingers is yet stiff and I cant wright 
good But I am giting well fast Dr. Bean can stait to you all 
Remember me to your Lady if when the weather Become cool 
you will see me 
Remaning your old friend 

Peter E Bean” 

Doctor Bean was Jesse E. Bean, a cousin of Peter Ellis Bean. 
According to John H. Reagan, he had gone to see Colonel Bean 
because of trouble arising in connection with the Bean estate. 
William Roark, a neighbor to the Peter Ellis Beans, had been 
one of the witnesses to the will made before Colonel Bean’s dis¬ 
appearance. Had he and Doctor Bean kept the whereabouts of 


22 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


the missing man a secret? Who knows? Despite the intentions 
expressed in the letter, the colonel never returned to Texas. Per¬ 
haps he never had the physical strength for the trip. 

The Bean will, recorded in the Nacogdoches County clerk's 
office but, according to the Probate Court records in Cherokee 
County, not discovered until 1850, is an interesting sidelight 
on the Bean story. 

“In the name of God Amen. 

“I, Peter Ellis Bean of the county of Nacogdoches in the Re¬ 
public of Texas, owing to the great uncertainty of this mortal 
life and the advancement of age and laboring under a lingering 
bodily disease, also being on the eve of starting to the Warm 
Springs of Arkansas, or elsewhere, for the preservation of life 
and the great uncertainty of the effect it may have in regard to my 
disease have thought proper to make the following distribution as 
my last will and testament. I own and acknowledge three children : 
Isaac Thomas Bean, Louisa Jane and Ellis M. Bean, two sons 
and one daughter. First I give and bequeath to my oldest son, 
Isaac T., a negro girl, Louisa, also the individual half of my 
headright of a league and a labor located on, or near, the Trinity 
river; next I give and bequeath to my daughter, Louisa Jane 
Lacy, a negro girl, Matilda, which she now holds in possession. 
I also give and bequeath to my son, Ellis M. Bean, the two old 
negroes, Dory and Vina, his wife; also the remainder of their 
children, three girls and one boy, Emmaline, Harriet, Sarah and 
Pendleton, together with the tract of land on which my dwelling 
and plantation are situated, containing one thousand acres, and 
all the stock of cattle, hogs and horses, including my fine stud 
horse, Bolton; also my household and kitchen furniture; one 
wagon; all my oxen, farming utensils and all other things per¬ 
taining to the farm. I hereby nominate, ordain, authorize and 
appoint Samuel K. Bean and Jesse E. Bean executors to this 
my last will and distribution; also guardian for my minor son, 
Ellis M. Bean, until he becomes of age, giving them, my executors, 
full power and authority in all and everything or things necessary 
to carry out the full intent and meaning of this instrument. Given 
under my hand and seal this the 6th day of February, 1843. 
Signed P. E. Bean. In the presence of William Roark and David 
Muckleroy.” 

Whatever the motive which led Colonel Bean to disown one of 
his children and then, with seeming irony, make him one of the 
executors of the estate, a lawsuit, which in 1910 recovered part 
of the Peter Ellis Bean land for Samuel Bean’s heirs, proved that 


EARLY COLONIZATION 


23 


Samuel Bean was his oldest son. Even the irony, if such were 
intended, missed its point for Samuel died before the will was 
discovered. 

While the Beans may have lived at Mound Prairie, west of the 
present Alto, where they owned land in 1828, the chief Cherokee 
County Bean residence was at Bean’s Prairie, four miles east of 
Alto, on a thousand-acre tract of land purchased from Colonel 
John Durst. The family is known to have been living on it from 
1837 until it was sold in December, 1846. No doubt they had 
lived on it prior to Colonel Bean’s removal to Nacogdoches as 
commandant after the expulsion of Colonel Piedras in 1832. Here 
he had much personal property at the time of his death. Today 
it is a part of the L. F. Hill estate. 

Candace Bean, then Candace Hicks through a second marriage, 
died in 1848. Tradition long had it that, according to her own 
wish, she was buried between two trees which she had planted 
near the old San Antonio road; that Time obliterated all trace 
of the grave so that, when straightening of the road made it 
necessary to cut down the trees and dynamite the stumps, no one 
realized it had been there and consequently the King’s Highway 
now passes over it. As a matter of fact, however, her grave may 
still be seen in the old Roark family cemetery. 


Another early Cherokee County settlement was on what is now 
known as Box’s Creek. In 1826, as a colonist under the David 
G. Burnet contract, John M. Box of Alabama petitioned the 
Mexican government for a league of land in what is now Hous¬ 
ton County. The title was finally issued, June 11, 1835. Thus 
one of the most distinguished of the present Cherokee County 
families settled in Texas. Their trail soon crossed the Neches 
River. On September 12, 1835, Roland W. Box, one of the five 
sons of John M. Box, purchased one-third of a league which 
had just been granted to Stephen Burnham, a Tennessee bachelor 
who had previously had no land on which “to practice agriculture 
and the raising of stock.” Here, on an elevation west of the creek, 
which now bears the Box name, and about half a mile from the 
southeast corner of the present Zaccheus Gibbs survey, was built 
a log fort, afterwards known as Box’s Fort, which became the 
center of a settlement, including the father and brothers of Roland 
Box. While no soldiers were regularly stationed in it, the building 
afforded protection to the neighborhood when Indians were on 
the warpath. Some twenty-five years ago fire destroyed the last 


24 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


remnants of the structure, which had long been used as a dwelling. 

In October, 1835, William S. Box, one of the five brothers, 
was granted a league of Cherokee land some seven miles north¬ 
west of Box's Fort. Samuel C. and James E. Box, and possibly 
some of the other brothers, served in the Texas revolutionary 
army. Some time prior to 1845, John A. Box moved to what is 
now the Mrs. H. M. A. Hassell farm, on the Peter Lovejoy 
survey. His log house was the post office and voting box for Box’s 
Creek. In later years it was confused with the old fort. Two 
years ago it was torn down to give place to a modern residence 
and some of the logs used in a barn. Samuel and William Box 
were members of the commission appointed to locate the county 
seat. John and Samuel Box are recalled by many of the oldest 
citizens as two of the most faithful of the pioneer ministers. 
Roland and James Box later moved to Anderson County, the 
latter being one of the commission to locate the Anderson County 
seat. His grandson, the Honorable John C. Box of Jacksonville, 
is one of the most widely known Cherokee citizens of today, 
having for twelve years served his district as congressman.® 

In addition to Helena Kimble, two other women, Sarah Ann 
Duncan and Barbara C. Lewis, were included in the fifty-six 
grants made prior to 1839. Each received one league in 1835, the 
year in which the majority of the grants were made to members 
of the David G. Burnet and the Joseph Vehlein colonies. 6 7 

The following documents, recorded in the Cherokee County 
clerk’s office in connection with the Zaccheus Gibbs survey, picture 
the manner in which a colonist obtained his title. 

“Mr. Special Commissioner of the enterprise of Citizen David 
G. Burnet—I, Zaccheus Gibbs, a native of the United States of 


6 John Calvin Box was born near Crockett, Houston County, March 28, 1871; 
attended Alexander Institute at Kilgore; was admitted to the bar in 1893 and 
began practice at Lufkin; moved to Jacksonville in 1897; county judge, 1898- 
1901; mayor of Jacksonville, 1902-5; member State Democratic Committee, 
1908-10; member of Congress, 1919-31; leader in the prohibition campaigns. 

7 In December, 1826, David G. Burnet, formerly of New Jersey, and Joseph 
Vehlein, a German merchant in Mexico City, were each authorized to establish 
three hundred families within designated territory which included Cherokee 
County. In March, 1829, Lorenzo de Zavala, a prominent Mexican citizen, con¬ 
tracted for five hundred families in territory adjacent to the Vehlein contract. 
Lack of capital and reports of revolution in Mexican territory hampered the 
fulfillment of these contracts. After futile efforts to secure the necessary 
colonists, the three empresarios transferred their contracts to the Galveston Bay 
and Texas Land Company, October 16, 1830, which immediately staged a sen¬ 
sational campaign, directed from its New York office, for “selling Texas” to 
immigrants. The Mexican Government, however, refused to recognize the new 
company and actual settlement was delayed until governmental restrictions were 
removed in 1834. 



EARLY COLONIZATION 


25 


the North, with due respect present myself before you and say 
that, attracted by the generous offers of the colonization laws of 
this state, I have come with my family, consisting of one child, 
to settle myself in the same if you should deem it proper in view 
of the accompanying certificate to admit me as a colonist, granting 
me one league in the vacant lands of the aforesaid enterprise. 
Therefore I pray you to be pleased to grant the favor I implore, to 
whom I shall ever live grateful. (Signed) Z. Gibbs, Nacogdoches, 
December 1, 1834.” 

“Decree: The party interested will pass with the accompany¬ 
ing certificate to the Empresario to whom it corresponds in order 
that he may report relative to the foregoing petition. (Signed) 
George Antonio Nixon, Land Commissioner. Nacogdoches, 
December 2, 1834.” 

“Report Mr. Commissioner: I certify that the party interested 
is one of the colonists whom I have introduced in fulfillment of 
the contract I have celebrated with the Supreme Government of 
the State, December 22, 1826. Therefore you may issue the order 
of survey of the lands he solicits. (Signed) A. Hotchkiss, Attor¬ 
ney for David G. Burnet. Nacogdoches, December 3, 1834.” 

Land Commissioner Nixon then ordered Surveyor Citizen 
Arthur Henrie to survey the league which Gibbs indicated, pro¬ 
vided it was vacant. Surveyor Henrie reported his work com¬ 
pleted, January 21, 1835, and a title of possession was given. 

“Citizen George Antonio Nixon, Special Commissioner for the 
Supreme government of the State for the partition and giving 
possession of lands and the issuing of titles to colonists in the 
enterprise of Citizen David G. Burnet—Whereas Z. Gibbs has 
been admitted as a colonist in the colonizing enterprise contracted 
by Empresario Citizen David G. Burnet with the Supreme Gov¬ 
ernment of the State December 22, 1826, and the aforementioned 
Z. Gibbs having fully proven that he is a widower, his family 
consisting of two persons, and being found to possess the requi¬ 
sites prescribed by the law of Colonization, March 24, 1825 . . . 
I put him in possession, real and personal, of one league of land 
. . . February 2, 1835. (Signed) Antonio Nixon.” 

Unfortunately Gibbs’ enjoyment of his new home was brief. 
A band of raiding Indians, who had slipped across the Neches 
River, caught him alone in his field and scalped him, about 1842. 
For some time his daughter, Phoebe, made her home at Cook’s 
Fort. 

No list of early colonists can now be made complete. In addi¬ 
tion to the settlers already mentioned, the following families are 


26 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


known to have lived within the present county boundaries prior 
to the expulsion of the Indians. 

Martin Lacy, the Indian agent who carried President Mirabeau 
B. Lamar’s decree of banishment to Chief Bowles, lived at Lacy’s 
Fort, 8 located on a commanding elevation on the old San Antonio 
road two miles west of the present Alto. During the Cordova 
Rebellion in 1838 Captain Augustin’s troops, sent to reconnoiter 
between the Neches and the Angelina rivers, spent two days at 
the fort. Soldiers, however, were not regularly stationed at this 
point, although it was more than once the object of an Indian 
attack. Prior to the establishment of Cherokee County, it was 
a voting precinct in Nacogdoches County. William Y. Lacy, one 
of Martin Lacy’s sons, married Louisa Jane Bean, the only 
daughter of the noted Peter Ellis Bean. In 1849 William Shaw, 
great-grandfather of Mrs. E. R. Gregg of Rusk, purchased part 
of the Lacy league, including the fort site. Mrs. Gregg’s grand¬ 
mother was married in one of the fort buildings in 1856. 

James Bradshaw lived on the San Antonio road some two and 
one-half miles east of the Neches River, on land purchased from 
Peter Ellis Bean in 1829. In 1835 he was made a member of 
the Committee on Public Safety appointed by the convention held 
at Nacogdoches. A year later General Sam Houston ordered him 
to organize the militia in the Nacogdoches District into well- 
armed companies, ready to move should threatened Indian hostili¬ 
ties materialize. For a number of years he was a deputy surveyor 
for Nacogdoches County. Death prevented his having a part in 
the organization of Cherokee County. 

Another prominent colonist of this early period was William 
Roark. Armed with two letters of recommendation, one from the 
Tennessee surveyor under whom he had served for seven years, 
the other signed by his home county sheriff and twenty-eight 
fellow-citizens, and their church letter, the Roarks started for 
the province of Texas in the fall of 1834. Settling on the John 
Durst grant, Roark was soon appointed surveyor for the colonies 
of David G. Burnet, Lorenzo de Zavala and Joseph Vehlein. After 
the organization of Nacogdoches County, which first included 
Cherokee County, he served in various official capacities. For 
some years he was a partner in the Mt. Sterling firm of Durst, 
Mitchell & Company. As a member of the commission to locate the 
county seat, as one of the first county commissioners and as a 
surveyor he continued to play an important role in Cherokee 


8 This is not to be confused with Lacy’s Fort west of the Neches River. 



EARLY COLONIZATION 


27 


County affairs until his death in 1862. Margaret Roark, his wife, 
was the daughter of the famous pioneer Baptist minister, Isaac 
Reed. Their descendants include the Selmans, Boones, Mc- 
Cuistions and Crosbys. 

Daniel Rawls, another planter on the Durst survey in 1837, 
continued to live in the county until his death in 1853. He was 
a partner of Ira R. Lewis of Matagorda County to whom Colonel 
Durst made the first sale of the division of his vast grant. In 1835 
Brooks Williams, a soldier under Colonel Peter Ellis Bean in the 
Fredonian rebellion, was granted a league near the Neches on 
which to settle his wife and seven children. Later he received 
a second league. According to local tradition, he was killed by an 
Indian. The Musicks were neighbors of the Bradshaws and Lacys. 
As an old man, William Musick delighted to recount his experi¬ 
ences hunting and fishing with the sons of Chief Bowles. 

In 1834, Absalom Gibson, who subsequently surveyed much of 
Cherokee County, was granted a league in Burnet’s colony in the 
northwest part of the present county. Here he lived until 1838. 
According to family tradition, he moved away shortly before 
the Killough massacre because he believed the threats of the 
old chief who daily warned him, “Me dirt. Me dirt. Get away. 
Get away. Not mad now. Get mad by and by. Fight a heap.” The 
Killoughs (Isaac, Sr., Isaac, Jr., Samuel, Allen and Nathaniel), 
Barakias and Owen Williams and George Wood lived in the same 
section, some five miles west of the present Mt. Selman. The 
tragic fate of this settlement has already been recorded. 

William Hicks, J. W. Adkinson and Daniel Meredith settled 
four miles east of Rusk in the ’30s. The Adkinsons were rela¬ 
tives of Sam Houston. When he spoke in Rusk in later years he 
stayed with Jane Adkinson, then Mrs. Daniel Meredith, mother 
of Mrs. Vie Pryor. In 1835 Levi Jordan was living on his league 
on Box’s Creek, land on which the noted 1934 discovery oil well 
is located. John Jordan had a house on his league some five miles 
from the Neches Saline. Later he became the pioneer East Texas 
salt manufacturer. William F. Williams and George May were 
located on Striker Creek. 

Joseph T. Cook, an emigrant from North Carolina who had 
settled in the San Augustine country in the early ’30s and later 
moved to Nacogdoches, employed a military company under the 
command of a certain Captain Black to build a fort on the Joseph 
T. Cook league three miles southeast of Rusk, known as Cook’s 


28 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Fort. 9 Here lived the sons of Joseph T. Cook, William, Joseph 
T. Jr., James, David, Samuel; his sons-in-law, Jesse and Absalom 
Gibson; and a friend, Elias Nelson. Despite the many printed 
statements to the contrary, Cook’s Fort was never the object of an 
Indian attack. 

After the stockade was torn down homesteads were established 
on adjacent land. At the point where these joined James Cook 
built a store and a blacksmith shop which proved the nucleus 
of the village of Cook’s Fort, said to have attained a population 
of two hundred and fifty, including slaves. In 1846 the locating 
commission considered it as a site for the new county seat. Family 
tradition pictures James Cook opposed to its being chosen because 
of interference with his extensive slave farming interests. After 
the establishment of Rusk most of Cook’s Fort inhabitants moved 
to the new town. Today the site of the village is a field, owned 
by J. L. Beall. 

Part of the original grant, including the site of the fort, is still 
owned by Cook descendants. Until her death in 1934, Miss Belle 
Cook, granddaughter of Joseph T. Cook and third owner of the 
grant, lived on the fort site, maintaining its traditional hospitality 
and keeping open house for the numerous visitors continually 
stopping for a view of the historic spot. A monument of native 
stone, built by Rusk Boy Scouts, marks the site of this landmark. 

If all the colonizing contracts were actually fulfilled, the fol¬ 
lowing names should be added to the list of American immi¬ 
grants prior to 1839; Elihu C. Allison, Larkin Baker, William 
Bartee, Crawford Burnet, James Cobb, John Engledow, Alston 
and Warwick Ferguson, William Gates, Edson Gee, James Ham¬ 
ilton, John Harrison, Edward W. Hackett, Jesse T. Jones, Isaac 
Kendrick, John Malone, John McGregor, Uriah Moore, Henry 
Myers, Kinchin Odom, Beverly Pool, Isaac Reed, George Ruddle, 
Thomas Timmons, John Vaughn and John Walker. How many 
were fulfilled has not been ascertained. How many actual settlers 
purchased land from the original holders of grants is another 
puzzling question. 

In addition to Cook’s Fort three other villages or towns ante- 


9 Many printed statements have erroneously placed the date of the building of 
this fort in the early ’30s. According to the late Miss Belle Cook, it was built 
in 1838. The Probate Court Minutes contain a statement made in 1848 by 
William James, a member of the company employed to do the work, that it was 
built about the first of January, 1840. The fact that it had a stockade, together 
with many stories, apparently authentic, of the presence of friendly Cherokee 
Indians, would seem to indicate that it was built before the expulsion of the 
Cherokees in 1839. 






Monument—Cook’s Fort 
Built by Rusk Boy Scouts 










































EARLY COLONIZATION 


29 


date the county organization—Striker Town, Lockranzie and Lin- 
wood. Detailed information concerning them is not available. 

A deed dated June 8, 1835, calls for land on the waters of the 
Angelina about six miles west of Striker Village, including 
improvements made by William F. Williams and George May 
the preceding November at the forks of a path leading from the 
Saline on the Neches to Striker Village. A second deed, April 3, 
1849, shows the same W. F. Williams purchasing six hundred 
and forty acres near Striker Town. In November of the same year 
the commissioners court ordered the review of a road from Striker 
Town to the Saline. On December 16, 1850, Hundley Wiggins 
bequeathed his son all the land on Striker Creek known as the 
Striker Town survey, beginning in the southwest corner of the 
Jose I. Sanchez survey. With this scanty outline the author is 
compelled to leave the reconstruction of Striker Town to the 
reader’s imagination. 

Were it not for the deed records and the memories of a very 
few Cherokee citizens of today, the town bearing the picturesque 
name of Lockranzie might be called a myth. The majority of even 
the oldest Cherokeeans never heard of it and none can tell its 
origin. 

Deed references show that it lay north of the old San Antonio 
road, three miles west of the Angelina River, on a fifty-acre tract 
just east of the present Old Palestine church, now owned by Mrs. 
S. F. Sparkman. From the same source one learns that Doctor 
and Mrs. Absalom C. Denson, the latter a cousin of James H. 
Durst, had a Lockranzie summer residence. Doctor Denson was 
doubtless the first of Cherokee County authors. His medical work, 
entitled “The Southern and Western Waybill to Health,” was 
copyrighted May 19, 1847. 

At least as late as 1854 Lockranize was a post office. The early 
postal records include the word “Anglin’s,” while deed records 
refer only to Lockranzie. Mrs. T. D. Miller of Alto vividly recalls 
spending rainy days in the attic at Forest Hill, reading letters 
addressed to her grandmother, Helena Berryman, at Anglin’s 
Lockranzie. Miss Jessie Boone of Rusk has letters written to her 
grandfather, William Roark, at Lockranzie. 

In 1849 a certain Francis Smith owned a lot on Ochiltree and 
San Antonio streets. In 1851, Doctor P. H. Butler was writing 
receipts for “medicinal services” in Lockranzie. In 1854, W. W. 
Frizzell, a notary public, was taking acknowledgments to deeds 


30 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


in his Lockranzie office. Tradition has it that Peter Ellis Bean 
was once proprietor of a store and stage-house in Lockranzie. 

As Linwood later lost to Alto, so Lockranzie must have failed 
to meet the competition of Linwood. 

Linwood, known in the ’40s, if not earlier, as the “Town of 
Angelina,” was located on the west bank of the Angelina River, 
just south of the old San Antonio road. James H. Durst and 
Ann Harrison, formerly the wife of George Whitfield Terrell, 
were apparently the promoters of the townsite surveyed around 
a public square. Charles Chevaillier and C. & H. W. Raguet, 
prominent Nacogdoches merchants, had Linwood stores in the 
’50s. In 1860 Gates and Powdrill were the big advertisers in the 
Texas Enquirer, published at Rusk, heading their ad with the 
slogan, “A steamboat at Linwood.” Other Linwood citizens 
included the McGaugheys, Wolfes, Selmans, Spruills, Evans, 
Beans, Easters, Moffats, Frizzells and the Terrells. 

George Whitfield Terrell, founder of the Cherokee County 
branch of the Terrell family, was one of the most distinguished 
citizens of the Texas Republic. Born in Kentucky, the son of 
Colonel James Terrell, who was a favorite officer of General 
Andrew Jackson, he was admitted to the bar in Tennessee, where 
he held high political offices until his removal to Texas in the 
late ’30s. After a short stay in San Augustine, he settled near 
Linwood. The Republic of Texas was quick to recognize Terrell 
talent. As the first district judge in East Texas, as attorney- 
general in President Houston’s cabinet, as Indian commissioner 
and as special minister to England, France and Spain for the 
purpose of securing recognition of the Republic of Texas, he 
served his newly-adopted government. The suit of cream-colored 
flowered silk which Minister Terrell wore to a reception at the 
court of St. James became a family heirloom. When annexation 
made it no longer necessary to have a foreign minister, he returned 
to Texas and was again appointed Indian commissioner. He died 
while on a business trip to Austin in May, 1846, a few weeks after 
the organization of Cherokee County. The Masonic lodge at 
Alto, Terrell Lodge No. 83, was named in his honor. 

The Honorable George B. Terrell, a grandson of the county’s 
first distinguished Terrell, still owns the ancestral home. As a 
member of the House of Representatives for sixteen years, as 
state commissioner of agriculture for ten years and as con¬ 
gressman at large, he, too, has rendered worthy service to his 


EARLY COLONIZATION 


31 


state. At the end of his present term in Congress he will retire 
to private life. 10 

In 1860 and doubtless later a mail line was running from Lin- 
wood to Jacksonville, via Rusk. As Alto grew, Linwood declined. 
Today the name is applied to two stores and a school, the latter 
also known as Grange Hall, located some distance west of the 
original town site. 

10 George B. Terrell was born near Alto, the son of Sam Houston Terrell 
and Julia Butler Terrell; attended the State Teachers College at Huntsville and 
Baylor University at Waco; taught school fifteen years and served one term on 
the State Textbook Commission; married Miss Allie Turney of Jacksonville, 
to which union five children were born. 



CHAPTER III 


Organization and Early Development 

The expulsion of the Indians marks a new era in Cherokee 
County history. The trickle of immigration grew to a steady 
stream: pioneers who had first built homes in the San Augustine 
and Nacogdoches country; eager homeseekers from the old states 
—especially Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi; some¬ 
times along routes blazed only by tree hacks; by ox-wagon and 
by horseback, with household goods and without. 

The act of Congress, January 27, 1844, validating all titles 
properly obtained under the Mexican laws and declaring vacant 
land subject to entry and location, followed by the admission of 
Texas into the Union in 1845, gave added impetus to immigration. 
In the late *40s and early ’50s travelers were seldom out of sight 
of covered wagons. 

As a result the legislature, in accordance with its policy of 
forming new counties out of the vast territory embraced in 
Nacogdoches County as soon as population warranted so doing, 
authorized the cutting off of another section, comprising 1,049 
square miles lying between the Neches and the Angelina rivers, 
to be known as Cherokee County. 

Its long, narrow shape, however, was destined to cause future 
dissatisfaction. Although in our day of swift means of transpor¬ 
tation the matter has not been an issue, there were occasions in 
earlier years when the division of the county was the subject of 
petitions to the legislature, one of the arguments being that the 
great distance involved undue inconvenience to jurors. As late 
as 1874 it was proposed to establish a new county, called Dillard, 
the division line passing no more than two miles north of Rusk. 

The new county was bountifully endowed by Nature—healthful 
climate, plenty of wood, good water, game, fertile soil and unsur¬ 
passed beauty. 

Early settlers found the country much more open than it is 
today. On many a prairie, now timbered, grass grew from knee 
to waist high. Alto residents could see deer grazing at the head 
of Larrison Creek as late as 1860. Game was present in abun¬ 
dance—deer, wild turkey, prairie chicken, quail, coon, wolf, wild- 

32 


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ORIGINAL TOWNSITE OF RUSK 






































































































































































































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ORGANIZATION and EARLY DEVELOPMENT 33 


cat, panther, fox and even bear. In 1877 Dallas hunters reported 
bagging sixty-one deer in Cherokee and Anderson counties. The 
streams abounded in fish. In addition to the two rivers watering 
its borders, Cherokee County has an abundance of perpetual 
streams and springs, some of which have mineral waters with 
curative powers. 

The act authorizing the organization of the county, approved 
April 11, 1846, also provided for a commission, composed of 
Elisha Moseley, John H. Irby, Colonel Parks, Nathaniel Killough, 
William Roark, W. Y. Lacy, Samuel Box and William S. Box 
to select a site for the county seat, within three miles of the 
geographical center, provided such radius afforded proper eleva¬ 
tion and water facilities, otherwise within five miles. After due 
deliberation, including the consideration of Cook’s Fort, the 
locating committee selected one hundred acres on the west half of 
the John Hundley headright, which had been purchased by James 
F. Timmons in 1839. Absalom Gibson and William Roark are 
both credited with surveying the town site. Roark made the map 
reproduced in this volume. 

According to tradition, this land was donated. The records 
show that the locating commission paid Timmons $600 for the 
100-acre tract. The deed, dated April 13, 1847, refers to a con¬ 
tract between Timmons and the commission, July 20, 1846, which, 
if available, might throw some light on the tradition that the town 
site was a gift. Timmons did donate four acres as a cemetery site. 

The legislative act creating the county named the county seat in 
honor of the distinguished soldier, jurist and statesman, Thomas 
Jefferson Rusk. 

Born in South Carolina, December 5, 1803, young Rusk studied 
law under John C. Calhoun. Soon after being admitted to the bar, 
he moved to Georgia. In 1834, in quest of money invested in a 
fraudulent mining scheme, he entered Texas, found its charm 
irresistible and moved to Nacogdoches in 1835. The General 
Council of the Provisional Government soon elected him com¬ 
missary of the army. In 1836, as a delegate to the Constitutional 
Convention, he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence 
and then fought gallantly at San Jacinto. Pending the recovery 
of General Houston from his injuries, he was made brigadier- 
general. In President Houston’s cabinet he served as secretary 
of war until he resigned to resume his law practice at Nacog¬ 
doches. As a member of the Second Congress he again served his 
state. In August, 1838, he led the Texans in suppressing the 
Cordova rebellion and in October directed the force against the 


34 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Cherokees who massacred the Killoughs, Woods and Williams. 
In December he was elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 
but left the bench long enough to command a Texas regiment 
in the Cherokee War of 1839. Resigning as Chief Justice in 1840, 
he once more returned to private practice and soon afterward 
formed a partnership with James Pinckney Henderson. In 1843 
he became Major-General of the Army of the Texas Republic. 
In 1845 he was chosen president of the convention which framed 
the first state constitution. The first legislature honored him with 
a seat in the United States Senate. In this capacity he served his 
state until shock, caused by the death of his wife, finally led him 
to end his own life with a rifle shot on the back steps of his home 
in Nacogdoches, July 29, 1857. 

Never seeking office, yet never defeated when drafted to run, 
Thomas Jefferson Rusk is said to have held more high official 
positions than any man who lived during the days of the Texas 
Republic. Had he not steadfastly refused to allow his name to be 
used as a candidate, he would doubtless have been President Rusk. 
The town of Rusk honored him on visits during his lifetime and 
still takes pride in bearing his name. 

After designating lots to be reserved for a courthouse, jail and 
school, the locating commission ordered the remainder to be sold 
to the highest bidders, the proceeds to be used for the construction 
of the needed public buildings. 1 

Subsequent records indicate that all financial problems were 
not reserved for current administrations. On January 11, 1847, 
the county treasury contained $56.17. By April the balance had 
dropped to $24.71, while orders filed for payment amounted 
to $72.00. 

The first election was held July 13, 1846, and the following 
officials took the oath of office: L. H. Gideon, chief justice; 
William Roark, R. J. Banks, A. C. Walters and William Isaacs, 
county commissioners; Cosby Vining, sheriff, with Joseph Hol¬ 
comb, Lee Vining and I. R. Goodwin as bondsmen; Jesse Gibson, 
tax assessor and collector, with James, David and Joseph Cook as 
bondsmen; John S. Thompson, county clerk; John Conner, dis¬ 
trict clerk. The commissioners court chose H. C. Crossland as 
treasurer. In November R. D. Rutherford was elected coroner. 
Nathaniel Killough made the first bond as notary public. 

It will be noted that the combination of the offices of tax 

1 Prior to February, 1850, $4,618.19 had been received for lots. At this time 
the county commissioners took over the sales hitherto handled by the locating 
commission. 



ORGANIZATION and EARLY DEVELOPMENT 35 


assessor and collector, effective in 1935, was merely a return to an 
old form of county government; that the offices of county judge, 
superintendent and surveyor were not on the first ticket. Until 
1867 the chief justice performed the duties of judge. In the 
absence of public schools there was no need of a superintendent. 
Surveyors for the Nacogdoches district served Cherokee County 
until the legislature authorized each county to have its own sur¬ 
veyor. In accordance with this law, William Roark was allowed 
$139.50 for furnishing supplies and drafting a Cherokee County 
map. B. B. Cannon was appointed to transcribe the records from 
the Nacogdoches office. In 1850, A. J. Coupland was elected 
county surveyor. 

The first commissioners court met October 12, 1846, to begin 
its task of providing roads and road overseers, granting permits 
for ferries, approving applications for land grants and finding 
some means of meeting expenses. 

Its first recorded act was a revenue measure, it being ordered 
that “37 per cent be assessed on the state tax for county pur¬ 
poses upon all property and money at interest, upon all incomes, 
trades, occupations and professions upon which a tax is levied by 
the state.” In 1847 the assessment was reduced to 33i per cent, 
in 1848 to 30 per cent. In 1850 it was raised to 50 per cent, the 
new courthouse probably being one cause of advance. In 1933 the 
county tax rate was eighty cents on the $100 valuation. 

Tax collectors with delinquent rolls sigh for the quick action 
of early days. Tax Assessor-Collector Jesse Gibson found a 
certain Denson owed one dollar and sixty-five cents for taxes 
in 1849. After due warning he still refused to pay. The land was 
ordered sold and struck off to the highest bidder for one dollar 
and sixty-five cents, July 6, 1850. One dollar was added for costs 
and Gibson “entered satisfaction” on his tax list. 

At the second meeting of the court James Thomason, Thomas 
Cook, Granville J. Carter, Milton Vining and L. Rutherford were 
appointed to “mark out and review a road in the nearest and best 
route to the Nacogdoches line in the direction of the town of 
Nacogdoches.” Similar orders were given for roads connecting 
the new county seat with Palestine, Henderson, Crockett and 
Tyler. In addition, intra-county roads were rapidly surveyed, 
connecting Cherokee communities with each other and with the 
county seat roads. Road overseers were authorized to “warn out 
hands” to work them. 

Some Cherokee roads, however, long antedate the organization 
of the commissioners court. One hundred and seventy-five years 


36 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


before there was a town of Alto, St. Denis, the French governor 
of Natchitoches (Louisiana), named the then ancient east-west 
trail from San Augustine (Florida) to Mexico City El Camino 
del Rey, later to be distinguished as one of the most historic of 
American roads. 

The East Texas link in this “Road of the King,” known as the 
old San Antonio road, or the road to Bexar, traversed the present 
Cherokee County in the Alto section, following practically the 
same route as the King’s Highway. 2 Cherokee citizens who speed 
along this route today follow famous travelers—La Salle, Bernard 
La Harpe, Moses and Stephen F. Austin, Zachary Taylor, Sam 
Houston, James Bowie and a host of other Texas heroes. What 
was known as the middle San Antonio road crossed the Angelina 
River at Mrs. Luckett’s ferry in the John Durst grant and inter¬ 
sected the upper road near Lacy’s Fort. 

The earliest Nacogdoches settlers, in search of salt, blazed trails 
to the Trinity and the Neches Salines which crossed the present 
Cherokee County. The old Nacogdoches-Fort Houston road also 
traversed Cherokee soil prior to 1846. 

Fords and ferries usually served as bridges. The first ferry 
permit was granted by the commissioners court to John Stinson, 
November, 1846, authorizing him to establish a ferry on the 
Neches River at Matthews Bluff, the crossing of the Rusk-Crock- 
ett road. The following schedule, allowed by his permit, is typical 
of ferry fees: wagon, when water is in banks, 75 cents; wagon, 
when water is out of banks, $1; man and horse, 10 cents; loose 
horse, 5 cents; cattle, 2 cents; hogs, sheep and goats, \ l / 2 cents. 
In 1851 William N. Bonner became proprietor and it was after¬ 
ward widely known as the Bonner ferry. Among the ferries 
existing before the county was organized were the David Rusk 
ferry, afterward the Hatchett ferry, on the Angelina; the Cannon 
ferry on the Neches, near the present railroad crossing; and the 
Williams ferry at the old San Antonio road crossing on the 
Neches. Ferry proprietors were required to pay an annual license 
fee and executed bond. 

The few bridges in existence in early years were privately 
owned, the owners paying tax and collecting toll for service. 
Posey’s bridge on the Neches and the James Durst bridge on the 
Angelina were in use before the county was created. In Novem¬ 
ber, 1846, the commissioners court authorized Jesse Bean to build 

2 According to Highway Department data, the old San Antonio road crossing 
on the Angelina River was about two hundred and twenty-five feet downstream 
from the present bridge. 



ORGANIZATION and EARLY DEVELOPMENT 37 


another Angelina bridge. Judged by the number of state charters 
issued to Cherokee companies for the construction of toll bridges 
and turnpikes, the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s must have brought a growing 
recognition of transportation problems. 

According to the usual charter stipulations, bridges were sub¬ 
ject to inspection by commissioners, appointed by the court, with 
authority to open toll gates when the company allowed the bridge 
to get out of repair. Persons who wilfully went around a toll 
gate when a bridge was in good condition were subject to prose¬ 
cution. The following receipt seems to indicate that if charges 
were paid in advance there was a reduction in the rate: “William 
Roark and family are entitled to cross and recross the Angelina 
Toll Bridge from the first of September, 1847, to the first of 
September, 1848, for which he has paid three dollars, September 
30, 1847. Signed, A. C. Denson.” A charter issued for a Neches 
bridge in 1870 specified the following toll exemptions: ministers 
of the gospel, all persons going to or returning from church, all 
jurors and state witnesses going to or from court and all per¬ 
sons going to or returning from a gristmill. Mail carriers always 
passed toll free. 


The first courthouse, built of logs with open halls which fur¬ 
nished wandering sheep with comfortable sleeping quarters, was 
begun in 1846. In July, 1847, however, the court called for bids 
for flooring it, lining the cracks, making a shutter for the door 
and the window, a judge’s seat and an attorney’s bar. In April 
of the same year a contract was let for a jail; in August for a 
two-room frame building, “with good brick chimneys,” to be used 
as offices for the county and district clerks. In August, 1849, 
Robert Green was awarded the contract for the construction of a 
two-story frame courthouse at a cost of $5,475. The old log 
courthouse, together with the offices of the court clerks and the 
unsold and forfeited Rusk lots, was ordered sold at auction. In 
1855 a contract was let for a two-story jail to cost $4,250. 3 

In 1859 need for greater safety for the county records led to 
the erection of a brick building for the county and district clerks’ 
offices. It still stands in the northeast corner of the courthouse 
square, the oldest brick building in Rusk. 

Stock evidently continued to give trouble. In 1853 the court 

3 In 1882 a new jail was built on the present site. In 1888 the old courthouse 
was condemned and sold. The new courthouse, completed in 1889, was remodeled 
and enlarged in 1925. 



38 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


supplemented the funds raised by the citizens of Rusk and had 
the courthouse surrounded by a “dressed plank fence” to which 
horses were not to be hitched. 

Adequate courthouse furnishings seem to have been acquired 
slowly, Cicero Broome being paid $40 for making a desk for the 
district clerk and William Hood $35 for making bookcases and 
a desk for the county clerk in 1855. 

From the beginning the courthouse square was a favorite polit¬ 
ical arena. Here Sam Houston crossed oratorical swords with 
the matchless Franklin Bowdon, termed by Henry Clay the 
greatest living orator. Here was inaugurated the stormiest polit¬ 
ical campaign ever waged on East Texas soil, by the nomination 
of Tyler’s distinguished statesman, Colonel William S. Herndon, 
as congressman in 1871. The Colonel was escorted to Rusk by 
two hundred men, with the Kickapoo band heralding their com¬ 
ing. On the courthouse square, from the tallest pine pole in the 
county, floated a strange flag. Its United States stripes were 
almost covered by a Texas star. In the midst of the celebration 
an officer from the Federal post at Tyler ordered it down. After 
a squally interval the command was obeyed. The courthouse 
square of his native county was also the choice of James Stephen 
Hogg for the opening shot in his gubernatorial compaign. Here 
he swayed three thousand people with his three-hour masterpiece. 
Here through the years have stood Richard Coke, O. M. Roberts, 
General Thomas J. Rusk, Colonel Edward Burleson, R. B. Hub¬ 
bard, the loved John H. Reagan and a host of other Texas sons. 

Joseph T Cook, Jr., and Ann Moseley, daughter of one of the 
members of the locating commission, were the first Cherokee 
County bride and groom. William Daugherty, probate judge, 
performed the ceremony, August 19, 1846. William Martin and 
Mrs. Carmelita Bean, widow of Samuel Bean, were a close sec¬ 
ond, Nathan G. Allen, justice of the peace, officiating at their 
wedding, August 27, 1846. Records show seven other weddings 
during the year. 

If one takes time to decipher the faded entries in the early 
commissioners court records, he is rewarded by interesting side¬ 
lights on pioneer days. The following excerpts are taken at 
random : 

“November, 1848—Francis A. Shelton shall be allowed $10 
for guarding prison . . . seven days and nights.” 

“February, 1855—Degerian tipe (daguerreotype) takers and 
proprietors of all and any shows shall pay for every day and night 
they occupy the courthouse $50 and $5 to the sheriff. Dancing 


ORGANIZATION and EARLY DEVELOPMENT 39 


masters, for each school taught in the courthouse, shall pay $50 
and such fees to the sheriff as he may charge for guarding the 
courthouse against conflagration.” 

“May, 1856—William T. Long allowed $9.50 for candles while 
W. F. Reynolds was a prisoner.” 

“John F. Williams, sheriff, allowed $1 for furnishing candles 
the night of the August election.” 

“Fifty dollars shall be paid to the county treasurer for every 
ball or party held in the courthouse and $5 to the sheriff for fires 
and lights each day and night.” 

Early records also show occasional departure from routine mat¬ 
ters, revealing the commissioners court dealing with affairs now 
under federal jurisdiction. In July, 1856, a certain Augustus 
Miller, born a subject of the Duke of Brunswick, was admitted to 
American citizenship. 

The first district court met October 5, 1846, with Judge Wil¬ 
liam Ochiltree presiding. Examination of the criminal docket 
from 1846 to 1852 shows that out of two hundred and fifteen 
cases recorded, the offense in one hundred and two cases was card 
playing, in eleven permitting cards to be played in the house, in 
thirty-two gaming, exhibiting faro banks or betting at monte, 
in two passing counterfeit money, in one cruelty to slaves, the 
verdict being not guilty. The first recorded fine for card playing 
was fifty dollars, but the usual amount was ten dollars. 

In 1848 Cherokee, Anderson and Houston counties constituted 
Senatorial District No 10, entitled to one senator. In 1853 Chero¬ 
kee alone elected one senator, the county comprising Senatorial 
District No. 11. In 1860 it was still one of the three counties with 
sufficient population to constitute a senatorial district, Rusk and 
Bexar being the other two. By 1869, however, it was again 
grouped with Houston County in District No. 3. In the senate 
Cherokee County was first represented by Isaac Parker of Hous¬ 
ton County, one of the counties making up the senatorial district. 

Benjamin Selman was the first Cherokee County citizen to sit 
in the House of Representatives. Together with his brothers, 
Willis and Thomas, he had emigrated from Mississippi in the late 
’40s. Had it not been for his opposition when the question of 
location was up for discussion, the federal court now at Tyler 
would probably have been at Rusk. On the floor of the House 
he declared that the county had enough courts. Benjamin Selman 
died in 1873, at the age of seventy-eight, and is buried at Old 
Palestine Church, which he helped to organize and long served 
as a deacon. W. W. Glass is the present representative. 


40 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Census figures for 1850 show the population was 6,673, includ¬ 
ing 1,283 slaves. Of this total only twenty-four persons were for¬ 
eign-born. By 1860 the county’s inhabitants had almost doubled. 
The majority of the earliest immigrants were small farmers, 
either entirely without slaves or owning only a few with whom 
they worked in the fields. Of the later pioneers, however, a large 
per cent were extensive slaveholders, who had money with which 
to build substantial houses and finance their farming operations. 
Despite the terrible droughts in the ’50s, it was a decade of 
prosperity. 

According to the 1850 census, 454 farms, containing 19,133 
acres of Cherokee land, has been improved. The Bureau of Busi¬ 
ness Research reported 6,800 farms in 1930. James Cook, a 
planter at Cook’s Fort, owned the largest farm, 300 acres. Only 
eight other men could boast of more than 200 acres of improved 
land. The average farm was limited to forty-two acres. 

Investigation of crop reports shows King Cotton had not yet 
come into power. The average production of corn on the 454 
farms was 500 bushels. Wheat was grown in abundance and 
converted into excellent flour, oxen turning the mill wheels. Three 
grades of flour were ground—white flour, middlings and shorts. 
If the white flour gave out before the next crop, the family used 
middlings and even shorts. In 1863 a bumper wheat crop resulted 
in paying tithes to the Confederacy in wheat. Doctor J. M. Noell 
of Alto reported a yield of 31i bushels per acre. 

Strange as it may seem to the 20th century Cherokee farmer, 
many of his predecessors in 1850 with large families made only 
one or two bales of cotton. Their total crop was only 1,083 bales, 
as compared with 36,951 bales in 1928. 

Poor roads and slow travel made gins much closer together 
than they are today. Rusk and Larissa both advertised gin fac¬ 
tories. It should be noted, however, that gin machinery of that 
day was largely made of wood, entailing none of the complicated 
processes of modern gin manufacture. 

The autoist of today, the shipper who at will imports or exports 
his goods, by rail or truck, can scarcely imagine early trade handi¬ 
caps. Shreveport, Louisiana, was the principal market. The dis¬ 
tance, however, precluded frequent trips in ox-drawn wagons, 4 
the chief vehicle of the day. No farmer could carry his cotton, 
wool and hides more than twice a year “over the wearisome one 
hundred and thirty or more miles, through mud and sand, over 


4 Axles for the pioneer’s wagon were often hewed out of trees and greased 
with tar. A tar bucket was always a part of the driver’s equipment. 



ORGANIZATION and EARLY DEVELOPMENT 41 


ungraded hills, across treacherous fords and rickety ferries.” 5 
Not even the much desired sugar and coffee could make up for 
greater loss of time. 

Had her efforts to navigate her bordering rivers met with suc¬ 
cess, Cherokee County’s marketing problems would have been 
largely solved. Old-timers still point out Green’s Ruin on the 
Neches, where in ante-bellum days a certain Green watched his 
flatboat sink. The Texas Enquirer, January 7, 1860, reported the 
completion of a flatboat with 150-bale capacity at the San Antonio 
road crossing on the Neches, observing that cotton could now 
be sent to Galveston for $5 and to New Orleans for $6 per bale 
via the Neches, less than the cost of taking it to Shreveport. 
Although the paper stated that the Neches was navigable to this 
point six months in the year, the venture was unsuccessful. During 
the Civil War, Captain C. C. Bell started from Lin wood with 
a flatboat loaded with cotton. Boat and cargo sank. Attempts 
at Angelina navigation were abandoned. 

The establishment of a shipping center at Magnolia, Anderson 
County, proved the greatest boom to Cherokee planters. Despite 
irregular boat schedules, the reduced freight rates resulted in 
increased cotton production. Much Cherokee cotton was marketed 
via the Trinity. 

Many citizens found profitable employment as freighters. An 
old receipt shows Randall Odom was paid ninety dollars for two 
trips to Shreveport. 


6 Posey, J. B.: History of Cherokee County, p. 51. 



CHAPTER IV 

Early Development (Continued) 

SCHOOLS 

Cherokee pioneers were, for the most part, cultured people 
who had no intention of allowing their removal to a frontier 
country to prevent their children from receiving the benefits of an 
education. Proof of their interest lies in the fact that in 1850 
Cherokee County ranked first in the state in the number of chil¬ 
dren who had attended school. In 1854 she again headed the list, 
reporting 2,400 scholastics. 

In some cases tutors were brought with the family from the 
old states, but the majority of children attended community 
schools. Free schools being as yet non-existent, parents gladly 
paid tuition. Sometimes this was reduced if several came from 
the same family. When a patron was short of money tuition bills 
were often paid in produce, even cows and quilts being accepted 
on such accounts. Fortunately for the teachers, small salaries 
were accompanied by small expenses, so a year’s savings were not 
insignificant. The late J. H. Bonner reported clearing two hundred 
dollars on a term taught in the Sardis community, when pupils 
paid ten cents per day if they came, nothing if they did not. 

As the population increased, log schoolhouses were replaced 
by frame buildings, usually erected by some lodge or church 
which permitted their use for school purposes. 

Despite the absence of certificate laws and state requirements, 
the majority of early Cherokee teachers were well-qualified. Many 
of them were outstanding educators. 

The legislative act of 1854, which authorized the creation of 
county school districts and the use of state school funds in pay¬ 
ment of teachers’ salaries in districts where substantial school 
buildings had been locally provided, marks a new era in Chero¬ 
kee’s educational progress. In accordance with this law the com¬ 
missioners court laid out forty-four districts and ordered the 
election of school trustees. Although designated as “free public 
schools,” a district’s quota of the public funds was usually inade¬ 
quate and the patrons of the school had to pro rate the balance. 
In 1858 George W. McKnight, F. C. Williams and W. K. Mar- 

42 


EARLY DEVELOPMENTS (Continued) 


43 


shall were appointed as a Cherokee County board of school 
examiners and a “certificate of qualification” became a prerequisite 
to drawing public school money. Somewhat of a blow to the 
dignity of university graduates! 

Such were the initial steps in the building of Cherokee County’s 
modern public school system. The next great advance came in the 
’70s and will be recorded in a later chapter. 

Poor means of transportation promoted the early establishment 
of boarding schools. Students within the proverbial stone’s throw, 
as modern mileage goes, often boarded from Monday to Friday. 

In March, 1848, Joseph L. Hogg, L. H. Dillard, T. J. Moore, 
B. B. Cannon, J. H. Parsons, J. T. Henry and E. L. Givens 
secured a charter for Cherokee Academy to be located on Block 
No. 6, the site reserved for school purposes by the commission 
appointed to locate the county seat. J. B. Mitchell then had a 
school on the site and doubtless became a teacher in the new 
academy. Although the corporation was to “exist as long as it used 
the benefits derived for the advancement of science and the pro¬ 
motion of useful knowledge among the rising generation,” no 
research has revealed any authentic trace of the academy beyond 
deed references to its being in existence in 1851. It may have 
merged with the Stephens and Carter Academy established in 
1851. 

In 1869 the commissioners court sold the site and invested the 
money in Rusk Educational Association stock. When the associa¬ 
tion’s plans for building a school failed to materialize, the county, 
together with other stockholders, conveyed its holdings to Euclid 
Lodge No. 45 and Cherokee Chapter No. 11, Royal Arch Masons, 
who built the Rusk Masonic Institute. 

Many of the present generation, familiar only with the Baptist 
Rusk College, will be surprised to learn that “College Hill” once 
lay north of Rusk, the name having been used originally in 
referring to the Guinn hill where, on a site donated by General 
Joseph L. Hogg, Moses W. McKnight, a Tennesseean in Texas 
for his health, erected five two-room frame buildings in 1855 and 
opened a school, afterward called Hale Institute. Since all avail¬ 
able records prior to 1859 refer to it merely as the College Hill 
school, it is not known whether the name was used in the 
beginning. 

When the anticipated donations with which he had expected 
to continue his building program failed to materialize, General 
Hogg released McKnight from his “contract to perpetuate a col¬ 
lege.” Continued ill health necessitated McKnight’s abandonment 


44 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


of school work some months prior to his death on New Year’s 
Day, 1858. No school record for this year is available. An adver¬ 
tisement in 1859 shows Milton P. Tucker, a Georgian of wide 
experience, opening Hale Institute. Although the Rusk newspaper 
editorially visioned the speedy erection of “a college edifice suffi¬ 
ciently commodious and elegantly ornamental,” the Civil War 
found the plant still limited to the five little houses built with 
McKnight’s private funds. Professor Tucker enlisted in the army 
and the Institute was closed forever. During the war a Mrs. 
Thompson taught a private school in one of the buildings. Later 
they were torn down. Among those known to have attended Hale 
Institute were Thomas E. and John W. Hogg, James, Pope and 
Charles Raines, H. W. Carter and John B. Long. The only other 
faculty member whose name has been found was Samuel Mitchell, 
geology teacher. 

The real center of higher education in Cherokee’s ante¬ 
bellum days, however, was Larissa College, the mother of Trinity 
University. 

About 1848, through the efforts of Reverend T. N. McKee 
and Mrs. S. R. Erwin, two Cherokee settlers from Lebanon, 
Tennessee, a school was opened in a little log cabin near Larissa 
under the management of the Trinity Presbytery of the Cum¬ 
berland Presbyterian Church, with Mrs. Erwin as the first 
teacher. So rapid was its growth that, in February, 1856, largely 
through the initiative of Thomas H. McKee and Nathaniel Kil- 
lough, it was chartered as a college under the direction of the 
Brazos Synod. After three men had served short terms, Doctor 
F. L. Yoakum, brother of the historian, was elected president. 1 

Although a co-educational institution, a hill separated the male 
and the female departments. A large, two-story frame building 
and several two-room dormitories for men were erected on “a 
commanding elevation in the pleasant little village of Larissa.” 
The girls’ dormitory was at the foot of the hill, while classes for 
the female department were held in the Presbyterian Church. 
Chemistry was the only subject in which both boys and girls were 
enrolled in the same class. Despite eighty years, the girls who are 
left still feel a flare of resentment at the way these masculine 
highbrows would strut by their windows with books stacked high, 
“just trying to make us think they were more learned.” 

The catalogue of 1859-60 offered courses in Latin, Greek, 

1 Doctor Yoakum, a native of Tennessee, had been a Limestone County physi¬ 
cian and a teacher in Tehuacana College. 




Larissa College 

The J. P. Gibson Home—(R usk) 

























































1 





























































EARLY DEVELOPMENTS (Continued) 


45 


French, Spanish, natural philosophy, chemistry, physics, geology, 
mineralogy, astronomy, botany, animal physiology, moral science, 
mental science, rhetoric, logic and mathematics. Special atten¬ 
tion was called to its physics and chemistry laboratory equipment, 
its microscopes, its herbarium and its powerful telescope, more 
than three times stronger than the Yale telescope. Tuition ranged 
from $10 to $20 per session of five months. In addition to dormi¬ 
tory accommodations, board was advertised in private families 
at from $8 to $10 per month, “washing included.” 

The catalogue further stated the “Ninth Chapter of the Laws 
of the College, defining moral conduct and misdemeanors, is placed 
in the hands of each student on entrance and is rigidly enforced; 
but obedience is secured as much as possible by moral suasion.” 

The three faculty members best remembered by alumni are 
Doctor F. L. Yoakum, professor of ancient languages as well 
as president; Reverend D. S. Crawford, principal of the female 
department, “who didn’t want a boy to look at a girl”; and Miss 
E. L. Joiner, a Vermonter educated in Canada, who taught 
Larissa co-eds voice, piano, art, Latin and French. According 
to an editorial, written after the editor of the Rusk Enquirer had 
attended the publicly conducted examinations which were a part 
of the commencement exercises and listened to the “effusions 
of the young ladies,” these co-eds “evinced superiority in mental 
culture.” Among other faculty members were Reverend E. Can¬ 
ady, H. I. Willson, Miss Mattie Early, Miss Mary Dixon and 
Reverend John B. Renfro. 

The session of 1859-60, with one hundred and twenty-five 
students enrolled, marks the turning point in the history of the 
institution. The Civil War suspended classes. Soon after the war 
work was resumed but, for reasons never made clear to the pub¬ 
lic, the Brazos Synod abruptly severed relations with Larissa. 
Three years later, in 1869, the Presbyterians established a new 
institution, Trinity University at Tehuacana. The college build¬ 
ing at Larissa was afterward used for a public school. 

Although the tangible assets, including the telescope, moved 
from Larissa were relatively insignificant, the university inherited 
an invaluable asset in the Larissa spirit and traditions. 

CHURCHES 

Churches also antedate the county organization. In 1844 the 
Mt. Olive Baptist Church was organized. 2 Although its exact loca- 


2 Minutes Sabine County Baptist Association, 1846 and 1849. 



46 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


tion is not known, it was apparently near the old San Antonio 
road, west of the Angelina River. Probably as early as 1845 and 
certainly not later than 1847 a group of settlers met at the home 
of B. F. Selman and organized another church, called Palestine 
for a Mississippi church to which some of the members had 
belonged. Disguised by a weatherboard covering, the house still 
stands almost in front of the Linwood stores on the King’s High¬ 
way. The last of its charter members, Mrs. B. F. Selman (nee 
Elizabeth Roark) died in 1910. Four years after its organization 
the Palestine church, then having only sixteen members, dissolved 
and united with the Mt. Olive church. Just when and why the 
name Palestine was again assumed has not been ascertained. The 
church still exists, the present building being located on the King’s 
Highway, four miles east of Alto, but is called Old Palestine to 
distinguish it from the Anderson county seat. 

The Rocky Springs Baptist Church, one and one-half miles west 
of Dialville, has passed its eighty-sixth birthday. The Mt. Zion 
and Shiloh Methodist churches, near Alto, the Myrtle Springs 
Baptist Church, afterward moved to Ponta, the Rusk and Jack¬ 
sonville Methodist churches and the Rusk Presbyterian Church 
existed prior to 1850, the Shiloh church doubtless being the oldest 
of the group. The Pine Springs Baptist Church existed at least 
as early as 1853. The Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, two miles 
west of Maydelle, has its minutes from the date of organization, 
September 16, 1854. No doubt others whose records are unavail¬ 
able are just as old. A number of other churches boast of eighty 
years’ existence. 

But many pioneer churches have fallen victim to the ebb and 
flow of the industrial tide. Once centers of prosperous com¬ 
munities, their sites are now desolate, the near-by stones marking 
the last resting place of former members, the only proof of their 
having existed. Prominent on the roster of these ghost churches 
are Mt. Comfort near Maydelle, Social Chapel in the Holcomb 
settlement on Box’s Creek, Liberty near the Pure Oil Pump 
Station, Mt. Olivant at old Knoxville and the oldest of the group 
at Keyes Creek. 

These little graveyards, now tucked away in off-the-road 
places, are rarely found in weed-grown wastes. Unique perhaps 
in East Texas are the graveyard workings held once a year 
when the flowers bloom most riotously. Then relatives and friends 
gather on an appointed day to rake and weed and hoe their plots 
and pay tribute to the dead. 

In many cases the early deeds which record donations of church 


EARLY DEVELOPMENTS (Continued) 


47 


sites specify that the church building be also used for a neighbor¬ 
hood school. For example, John Slaton for one dollar paid by 
Sam Nelson, William Hammett and William Matthews, trustees 
for the M. E. Church, South, sold one acre “for church and 
educational purposes to be free to all orthodox Christians to 
preach in and to the neighborhood for a schoolhouse and edu¬ 
cational purposes all the time they wish to use it.” 

Pioneer deacons and elders were stern disciplinarians who tol¬ 
erated no trifling with church rules. Preferring charges against 
erring members was a frequent item of business recorded in 
church minutes. In some cases a confession of fault and a promise 
of refraining from further offense brought forgiveness. In others, 
the offender was publicly expelled from the congregation. 

The annual camp meeting was a red-letter event on the religious 
calendar. After crops were laid by, pioneer kitchens witnessed 
an orgy of cooking, prelude to the entire family’s going to meeting. 

On the appointed day heavily loaded wagons from every direc¬ 
tion creaked into the camping ground. Amidst eager interchange 
of friendly greetings and help, a canvas village swiftly sprang 
to life. Even while housekeeping arrangements held older folk 
apart for a few hours, knots of younger folk were happily flit¬ 
ting from tent to tent, exchanging confidences, sharing experi¬ 
ences since last they met. Dusk came. The grounds were bright 
with torches of blazing pine, securely fastened in dirt-floored 
scaffolds. The blast of a horn, signal for evening service, hushed 
the babble of voices. 

Swiftly, from every nook and corner, young and old converged 
upon the center of the camp—the brush arbor. A leader “set the 
music,” doubtless “Brethren, We Have Come to Worship,” and 
the majestic notes of the old tune filled the countryside. Next 
came a call to prayer. 

Quoting Reverend D. D. Shattuck, a veteran camper, “The 
leader soared aloft, talked right into the face of God, while 
‘Amens’ sounded all over the kneeling congregation. All this put 
the preacher in excellent fix for his sermon. He couldn’t help 
preaching. After the sermon people were invited to the ‘Anxious 
Seat.’ When the altar filled, the right person was called on to pray, 
one who knew how to really talk to God. Before the prayer was 
over, shouting almost rent the arbor.” 

Although primarily a religious gathering, the summer camp 
meeting was also an eagerly anticipated social event. “Go to my 
tent for dinner. . . . Come with me for supper.” Never was there 
a lack of invitation. For the young visitors from tent to tent the 


48 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


hours between services were often all too short. Many a happy 
courtship progressed swiftly on camp-meeting grounds. 

As the years passed, the various denominations formed the 
habit of holding their own evangelistic campaigns in their own 
churches and the pioneer camp meeting lost favor. 

Among the prominent pioneer ministers serving these rural 
churches were George W. Slover, Samuel C. Box, John A. Box, 
J. B. Harris, Preston B. Hobbs, D. M. Stovall, S. K. Stovall, 
John B. Renfro, T. N. McKee and J. A. Kimball. 

NEWSPAPERS 

Realizing that without newspapers progress is inevitably re¬ 
tarded, Cherokee pioneers soon added this educational advantage. 
For almost three decades, however, the county seat had the only 
printing press. 

The Rusk Pioneer, first published on the north side of the 
courthouse square (Lot 9) in June, 1847, by Joseph A. Clark, 
former owner of the San Augustine Redlander, and W. R. Culp, 
was the county’s first newspaper. The subscription was five 
dollars per year, with two dollars reduction for payment in 
advance. The following extract from the issue of August 8, 1849, 
proves Editor Clark a booster: 

“A heavy emigration is expected to this state during the ap¬ 
proaching fall and winter. We hear of many who design coming 
to our own county. This will be a favorable year to come to 
Cherokee. Abundant crops of corn have been made this season 
and it will be sold cheap. . . . Those who want to enjoy the advan¬ 
tages of a new country and fresh soil and at the same time have 
the advantages of good schools, good society and many other 
privileges and enjoyments rarely to be found elsewhere than in an 
old country, will do well to come to Cherokee County. The health 
of this part of Texas is not surpassed by any place in the South. 
The lands will class with the richest uplands of the state and the 
water is excellent.” 

This first newspaper venture was evidently not a financial suc¬ 
cess, the Pioneer becoming the home of the Cherokee Sentinel 
in February, 1850. In December, William Hicks, owner of the 
Sentinel , conveyed half interest in its press to his sister, Jane 
Jackson. Thus Andrew Jackson, Jane’s husband, colorful figure 
in the town’s history, began his long newspaper career in Rusk. 
The Sentinel was subsequently owned by Jackson & Lang, Jack- 
son, Wiggins & Company and Noland & Reagan. 

In April, 1855, Colonel W. T. Yeomans established a rival 



Andrew Jackson 


































































































































































































































































































EARLY DEVELOPMENTS (Continued) 


49 


paper, the Texas Enquirer, “devoted to political economy, litera¬ 
ture, the development of our state’s resources, home industry, and 
the policy of the South.” Politically the new paper was a Know 
Nothing organ. From 1858 to 1861 Colonel Yeomans and Andrew 
Jackson also printed the Texas Freemason, “a large and hand¬ 
some sheet of eight pages,” published monthly by the Texas 
Masons. 

When the Civil War cut off the regular channels of paper 
supply, Rusk newspaper service was discontinued until the Texas 
Observer made its appearance in 1865, with H. S. Newland and 
Jack Davis as owners and Andrew Jackson as publisher. 3 Its 
slogan was, “The World Is Governed Too Much.” 

The Cherokee Advertiser, a Republican paper, was published 
by J. C. Anderson in 1870. Through its purchase by Thomas E. 
Hogg and Frank Templeton it was soon changed to a Democratic 
organ, which in 1877 was published by McLeroy and McEachern. 
For a short time the Texas Intelligencer was also a Rusk paper, 
published by J. K. Street. After the birth of the present Jackson¬ 
ville, it was sold to A. R. McCallum and J. H. Mason, who 
moved it to Jacksonville. Later newspaper history will be found 
in the chapters on the towns. 

The following glimpses of 1859-60 issues of the Texas 
Enquirer affords a cross-section of Cherokee life: 

“U. S. Mail Line from Shreveport to Crockett in three days! 
Bradfield’s line of 4-horse Post Coaches runs regularly three times 
per week from Shreveport via Marshall, Henderson and Rusk to 
Crockett, making connection at both ends. His stages and horses 
are the best that can be procured, his drivers sober and accommo¬ 
dating. Travelers from the old states can take this line at Shreve¬ 
port and pass through the rich counties of Harrison, Rusk and 
Cherokee to Crockett where they will find conveyance to any part 
of West Texas. Merchants visiting New Orleans will find this line 
cheaper.” 

Cumberland Presbyterian Church services were held each Sab¬ 
bath at candle lighting. 

The Cherokee Hotel had rooms “fitted up with a view to con¬ 
venience and comfort, several of them especially appropriate to the 
use of families.” Its large, well-arranged stables had competent 
hostlers in attendance. Cane and fodder were kept for sale at 
reasonable terms. Accommodations could be had at the following 
rates: man and horse per night $1.50, per day $2; stage pas- 

3 The Observer office was on the south side of the courthouse square, in the 
upper story of the building on Lot 1. 



50 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


sengers per meal 50 cents; board per week $5. Travellers might 
secure the use of its “fine two-horse carriage and fine buggy.” 

Advertising by local merchants contained such pointed state¬ 
ments as, “Credit is played out. Save your feelings and don’t ask 
for it.” One druggist was “determined to astonish the cash-paying 
natives with the greatest reduction in prices ever known in Texas.” 
The publisher was notifying patrons that no more work would 
be done without advance payment. 

Slaves sold at auction, January, 1860, brought the following 
prices: a 18-year-old boy, $2,006; a 15-year-old girl, $1,555; 
a 53-year-old man, $921. Persons who hired slaves paid from 
$225 to $255 per year for common field hands and $170 per 
year for women in addition to furnishing their food and clothing. 
White men in anti-slave states rarely got more than eight dollars 
per month and furnished themselves. 

Ladies’ hoops were selling at $1.50 to $8 per pair. 

Numbers of out-of-the-county lawyers and doctors inserted 
professional cards. New Orleans and Shreveport firms led out- 
of-state advertisers. From the amount of space taken they must 
have found Cherokee patronage a significant source of income. 
Measured by modern standards, however, none of their ads would 
be effective. Few buyers of today would take time to read a single 
column of fine print. 

A large number of columns in each issue were devoted to adver¬ 
tising patent medicines which were to cure any and all Cherokee 
ills. Balsam and Cherry and Tar was a “safe, speedy and certain 
remedy for coughs, colds, asthma, sorethroat, bronchitis, con¬ 
sumption and all pulmonary complaints.” Extract of Sarsaparilla 
and Yellow Dock was a most unfailing remedy for diseases of the 
blood and bilious complaints. The popularity of Mexican Mus¬ 
tang Liniment was “coextensive with the civilization of the 
globe.” A single trial would “convince the most skeptical that 
there is unequalled virtue in the Red Jacket Stomach Bitters.” 

The following editorial comments on Cherokee styles in 1867: 

“Clothes may cost higher now, but little more of them are 
worn than by Mother Eve. Bonnets are the size of a 3-cent postage 
stamp. Dresses without sleeves, low in the neck and short in the 
skirts, constitute the full dress of a modern lady of fashion. And 
even in such costume they look, oh! how pretty.” 

The same issue carried an announcement of an improved mail 
schedule for Rusk. 

“Galveston mail arrives Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 
6 p. m. and departs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 6 a. m. 


EARLY DEVELOPMENTS (Continued) 


51 


“Shreveport, Marshall, Jefferson and Henderson mail arrives 
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 6 a. m. and departs Mon¬ 
days, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 p. m. 

“Palestine mail arrives Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 
departs Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays.” 

It took the Houston Telegraph four days to reach Rusk. Thirty- 
six hours’ running time were lost by lay-overs at Navasota, Hunts¬ 
ville and Crockett. 


LODGES 

The lodge was another institution which bound Cherokee pio¬ 
neers together. The first Masonic lodge in the county was char¬ 
tered in Rusk, July 15, 1848, as Euclid Lodge No. 45, with the 
following members: M. H. Bonner, John N. Thomas, G. A. 
Evarts, Duncan McEachern, Andrew Jackson, James U. Parsons, 
James B. Harris and W. P. Brittain (Worthy Master). Rusk also 
had the first chapter of Royal Arch Masons, Cherokee Chapter 
No. 11, chartered June 25, 1851. In 1854 Rusk was host to the 
Seventeenth Annual Communication. 

During the ’50s other Masonic lodges were organized at Larissa, 
Jacksonville, Griffin, Social Chapel on Box’s Creek, Pine Town 
near Maydelle, and Alto. Upon the enlistment of almost its entire 
membership in Confederate service, the Griffin Lodge ceased to 
function in 1861. The Dixie Lodge, chartered at Knoxville two 
years later, gained its surviving members. As population shifted 
to railroad centers, the lodges were also moved: Larissa to Jack¬ 
sonville, Knoxville to Troup, Pine Town to Dialville. 

Other fraternal organizations followed the Masons. About 
1853 the Washington Lodge No. 17, I. O. O. F., was organized 
at Rusk, but subsequently forfeited its charter and was not reor¬ 
ganized until 1870. About 1854 the Frank Patillo Temple of 
Honor No. 20 was also organized at the county seat. It dissolved 
in 1858. 


MEDICAL ASSOCIATION 

The first members of the Cherokee County medical corps were 
Doctor A. C. Denson of Lockranzie, Doctors T. J. Moore, J. H. 
Vaught and Cosby Vining of Rusk and Doctor Jackson of Jack¬ 
sonville. Among newcomers during the next three decades were 
Doctors E. W. Jenkins, Toliver P. Hicks, William Finch, Charles 
B. Raines, S. J. Lewis, M. W. Armstrong, C. C. Francis, J. S. 
Wightman, Wallace McDugald, H. L. Givens, L. R. Peacock 


52 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


(surgeon dentist), D. Castleberry, J. R. Vaughn, I. K. Frazer, 
T. Y. T. Jamieson, W. G. Jameson, Charles A. Wade, Charles 
Cannon, J. T. Wiggins and J. Pat Clark of Rusk; Doctors J. S. 
Lindsey, John Ray, A. K. Middleton, B. F. Brittain, J. B. Fuller, 
T. K. Chester, J. H. Stuart, W. R. Cloud, L. Lloyd, Chapman, 
Shelton, Black, Taylor, Fowler, Johnson, Robinson, Porter and 
Smith of Jacksonville; Doctors P. H. Butler, W. L. Kirksey, 
M. A. Gaston, A. F. Wilson, John Collier and J. M. Noell of 
Alto; Doctors John A. Shamblin, R. D. Bone, William H. Camp¬ 
bell and U. G. M. Walker of Larissa; Doctor J. M. Brittain of 
Griffin; Doctor J. T. Rountree of Knoxville; and Doctor Edwin 
Hendricks of Box’s Creek. A number of these, including Doctors 
Brittain, Lloyd, Frazer and Fuller, served their communities more 
than half a century. Doctor R. T. Tennison of Summerfield 
is the dean of the present corps of Cherokee physicians. After 
graduation from medical school in 1878, he returned to the farm 
on which he was born and shouldered the ills of a territory fif¬ 
teen miles square. He is still there, dispensing medicine from the 
same little bottle-lined office. 4 

CHEROKEE COUNTY BAR 

While William C. Daniel has the distinction of being the first 
lawyer to open an office in the county, he was soon followed 
by S. L. B. Jasper, Joseph L. Hogg, Rufus Chandler, R. H. 
Guinn, Samuel A. Erwin, S. P. Donley, M. H. Bonner, A. H. 
Shanks, W. B. Davis and F. W. Bonner. Among other early 
comers were Thomas J. Jennings, E. B. Ragsdale, T. T. Gam- 
mage, Thomas J. Johnson, John T. Deckard, J. J. A. Barker, 
Abraham Glidewell and G. K. Grimes. In the ’60s additional names 
appear—Jefferson Shook, M. D. Priest, S. A. Willson, E. L. 
Gregg, T. R. Bonner, J. H. Cannon and others. Among outstand¬ 
ing lawyers of still more recent date are J. E. Shook, J. P. Gibson, 
James I. Perkins, Sr., S. P. Willson, Charles H. Martin, E. C. 


4 The 1934 membership of the Cherokee County Medical Association is as 
follows: J. L. DuBose, Wells; J. B. Ramsey, Forest; J. M. Crawford, W. A. 
McDonald, and John L. Hatch, Alto; Charles W. Evans, Fastrill; J. M. Travis 
(president), R. T. Travis, L. L. Travis, W. H. Sory, F. A. Fuller, Fred Fuller, 
R. F. Brake, John B. McDougle, J. N. Bone, and C. H. Stripling, Jacksonville; 
Thomas H. Cobble (secretary-treasurer), E. M. Moseley, R. C. Priest, J. F. 
Johnson, William Thomas, Lawrence Smith, C. A. Shaw, W. F. Perkins, E. W. 
Burnett, and Roy C. Sloan, Rusk; D. F. Gray, C.C.C. Camp. 



EARLY DEVELOPMENTS (Continued) 53 


Dickinson, J. F. Beall, M. J. Whitman, F. B. Guinn, Lee D. 
Guinn and C. F. Gibson. 5 

Since R. H. Guinn opened his office in Rusk in 1847, members 
of the Guinn family have continuously practiced law in the 
county seat. The firm is now composed of M. M. and E. D. Guinn, 
two of his grandsons. The Shook family for four successive 
generations has been represented in the legal profession—Jeffer¬ 
son Shook, J. E. Shook, W. H. Shook and John Louis Shook. 


5 The 1934 Cherokee Bar includes W. T. Norman, B. B. Perkins, M. M. 
Guinn, E. D. Guinn, J. W. Chandler, Jr., W. E. Stone, Frank L. Devereux, G. W. 
Gibson, S. A. Norman, E. B. Lewis, H. T. Brown, John B. Guinn, W. J. Gar¬ 
rett, James I. Perkins, Jr., John C. Box, Sr., John C. Box, Jr., Thomas Shearon, 
D. L. Harry, W. H. Shook, and Ray H. Odom. As will be noted, many of 
these are descendants of pioneer lawyers. 



CHAPTER V 


SNAPSHOTS 

One of the joys of the quest of material for this volume has 
been the formation of delightful friendships with the oldest 
Cherokeeans. Graciously delving into long-undisturbed places, 
flitting here and there among memories, these silver-haired men 
and women have rendered invaluable service in this effort to draw 
a true picture of the Cherokee pioneer. Most of them too feeble 
to have a part in the world’s activities, their eyes too dim for 
much reading, they find their chief pleasure in reminiscence. To 
them should be credited the real authorship of these sketches of 
yesterday. 

The chapter makes no pretense at unity. Like the Walrus’ con¬ 
versation, it deals with many things— 

“Shoes and ships and sealing wax 
And cabbages and kings.” 

Despite relatively sparse settlement and the absence of the 
automobile, pioneer folk had their share of good times. Social 
customs, however, were strikingly different to our own. 

“Dates” were made by note: 

Compliments of John Doe to Miss Blank 

Will be pleased to call-evening 

And see you to-. 

The messenger brought back the formal, dignified reply: 

Miss Blank returns the compliments of Mr. John Doe 
And will be pleased to accept-. 

Or the young lady may have had cause to decline. A previous 
engagement. Or take the case of a too youthful suitor to whose 
very proper note came this scathing answer: 

Miss Blank returns the compliments of Mr. John Doe. 
When you have learned to button your trousers to your 
waist I shall consider accepting your company. 

54 





SNAPSHOTS 


55 


In either case, partially through the inventive genius of a cer¬ 
tain Alexander Graham Bell, the system has changed. 

And who ever heard of a party without “Weavilly Wheat” 
and “Old Sister Phoebe” ? 

Picture the scene. A line of young men and women, facing 
each other. The head couple dances down the aisle and back again, 
then goes foot. The second couple does likewise. So, on and on, 
until the party's end. All the while the crowd singing lustily— 

Charley, he's a nice young man, 

Charley, he's a dandy; 

Every time he goes to town, 

He brings the girls some candy. 

I won't have any of your weavilly wheat, 

I won't have any of your barley; 

I’ll take some flour in half an hour, 

To bake a cake for Charley. 

Or perhaps the tune changes— 

Old Sister Phoebe, how merry were we 
The night we sat under the juniper tree, 

The juniper tree, heigh-ho. 

The modern punch bowl and chicken-salad-potato-chip plate 
were conspicuous for absence. Only on extra special occasions 
were there refreshments of any kind. Then tea cakes and lemon¬ 
ade, minus lemons! Escorts went to the sideboard, filled a glass 
with water, sweetened it with lemon sugar, flavored it with drops 
from the little phial of lemon extract which always came with 
the sugar, and gallantly served the ladies. 

On cold winter nights, when fires roared in huge fireplaces and 
candles flickered and flared while skilled fiddlers wielded their 
bows and prompters gaily called signals, young and old shared 
a favorite amusement—the pioneer ball. An oft-told story has 
to do with Cherokee County’s celebration of secession by the 
famous “Secession Ball” at Old Jacksonville. 

Although polo, golf and tennis were unknown terms, the pio¬ 
neer had sport a-plenty. A shooting match champion was a 
community hero. In lieu of a loving cup, he accepted a quarter 
of a beef as a trophy; his gun was always named. Dashing over 


56 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


red hills on the back of a thoroughbred was a pastime shared 
by both men and women. A partridge drive on a misty autumn 
day was another ideal sport. 

Partridge catching equipment consisted of a funnel-shaped net, 
eighteen feet long, knitted from twine the color of fallen leaves, 
and held open by hoops of graduated size. Fastened to the ground 
at the open end, the net was stretched full length and covered with 
leaves. Gradually closing in on them, the hunters drove a covey of 
partridges toward the snare. Unsuspectingly they entered and 
continued their course until caged at the other end. Often 
twenty-five or thirty were captured at one drive. 

While intercollegiate football and baseball were unknown, the 
pioneer college student needs no pity from the modern sport fan. 
For modern track there was fox—one player being given five 
minutes’ start on the mile of woodland course, the balance fol¬ 
lowing in wild pursuit. Cat and bullpen afforded variation when 
players were limited, but townball was the chief sport. “Stealing 
drygoods” was a game which kept the co-eds physically fit. 

“Our infare dinner!” Turkeys and chickens baked to just the 
proper shade of brown, big juicy hams, cakes and pies. The tables 
groaning beneath their loads. Everything and everybody doing 
their utmost to give the bride one perfect day. Small wonder old 
eyes still sparkle at the thought of it. All the thrill of a 1934 
honeymoon trip pressed into that one glorious day, the day after 
the wedding, when the groom’s family entertained. Not surpris¬ 
ing that a bit of the pride of long ago creeps into the description 
of my infare dress,” always close rival of the wedding-gown 
itself. Evidently no length of years can blot out an infare 
triumph. 

Shades of modern drug store counters! Can it be that milady 
of the ’40s had only a starch-bag? But what bags! Not mere 
scraps of cloth tied with strings, but works of art into the making 
of which went all one’s ingenuity in needlecraft. A richly embroid¬ 
ered white flannel bag was the style de luxe. When such a bag 
could be filled with crushed “bought starch” instead of the face- 
powder made by drying grated corn and sifting out the husks, 
feminine aspiration could go no farther. 

The accomplished pioneer woman must learn to spin, weave, 
knit and sew. Perfect sewing meant taking the tiniest of stitches 
by hand. Styles of the day multiplied the number required. Tucks 
were much in vogue. Babies were swaddled in much-tucked 
skirts. Even the bosoms of men’s shirts were finely tucked and 
then still further ornamented by tiny ruffles with rolled and 


SNAPSHOTS 


57 


whipped hems. Dyeing thread—wool for winter, cotton for sum¬ 
mer—to just the right shade for knitting her two-tone stockings 
was a matter of grave concern. Note “hose” was not in her 
vocabulary. Her hat, often made of corn shucks, wild palmetto, 
or rye straw, was probably trimmed with feathers from barnyard, 
fowls. Almost always her everyday shoes were made of home- 
tanned leather. Woe unto the wearer whose shoes got wet! 

The pioneer with money was often no better off than the pio¬ 
neer without it. Many desired goods were simply not purchase- 
able in frontier communities. 

Probably on account of fear of fire, the kitchen was usually 
built at some distance from the house. Bills of sale always listed 
both kitchen and household furniture, but the former never 
included a stove. 

Yet what delectable food came from those huge, open fireplaces! 
Ash cake, corn lightbread, johnny-cake made of meal and baked 
on a board before the fire; spareribs roasted on strings; chicken 
pie, not the pale baking-powder biscuit variety but pie whose 
crust was yellow with richness; deep, juicy fruit cobblers; enor¬ 
mous pound cakes, and so forth, and so on! “Best cooking ever 
tasted.” Again and again these men and women of yesterday 
declare it. What right have we to deny it? 

In a few Cherokee pantries of today, by the side of bright 
aluminum and gayly-colored enamel ware, may be found a gourd 
vessel, relic of pioneer days when such containers for sugar, salt, 
soap, lard and so forth were in common use. Cherokee gourds 
grew in abundance to unusual size, some fifty-nine inches in cir¬ 
cumference. When the tops were cut off in notches, they could be 
easily kept in place as covers. Smaller gourds made excellent 
dippers. 

Piggins, noggins, keelers and cupping horns. What curious 
terms creep into conversations among old-timers—new to most 
of the present generation. But to those readers who scoured to 
shiny brightness the brass hoops on cedar piggins once filled with 
creamy milk or clear spring water; those who have sleepily pro¬ 
tested washing dusty, childish feet in little cedar noggins and 
keelers; those who have submitted to being cupped for various 
aches and pains will smile knowingly and slip away on trails of 
reminiscence. 

The drug store was “all out-of-doors.” Slippery elm bark soaked 
in water was given for nausea; dogwood, white ash and cherry 
bark in whiskey for chills; dried may-apple root, beaten into 
powder, for purgative; goat-weed tea to sweat off fever; bear-foot 


58 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


tea mixed with grease for rheumatism. In addition to these wood¬ 
land supplies, medicinal herbs—thyme, tansy, sage and senna, 
mint and sweet basil, rue, garlic and what not—found a place 
along the back walks of the vast, old-fashioned flower and vege¬ 
table garden so dear to the heart of the mistress of every Cherokee 
plantation. Stored away in carefully picked bunches, these herbs 
awaited the development of an ache or pain. 

Dyes also came from the woods—maple and sweet gum, set 
with copperas, for purple; a combination of pine, red oak and 
plum for slate; indigo for blue; the clay hills for yellow. Maple 
and sweet gum also furnished ink. 

With the cost of living a subject of paramount interest, a 
glimpse of pioneer prices may prove encouraging. In 1849 calico 
was selling in Rusk for twenty-five cents, gingham for thirty-eight 
cents, and drilling for twenty cents per yard; two cards of hooks 
and eyes cost seventy-five cents. In 1853 two chickens sold for 
“two bits.” In 1857 meal was seventy-five cents per bushel, thread 
ten cents per spool. In 1858 red flannel was thirty-eight cents, 
pink flannel fifty-four cents per yard. In 1860 Dallas flour was 
advertised in Rusk at four dollars per hundred pounds. In 1859 
oranges were one dollar per dozen. 

Everywhere was a spirit of neighborliness and trust. Houses 
were never locked; the latchstring was always out. Pop-calls had 
no place in the social calendar. Whole families, crowding into 
wagons or rock-a-ways, drove miles to spend the day. Nobody 
thought of charging for milk and butter, a setting of eggs, or 
garden produce. Neighbors miles away came to sit up with the 
sick. When a neighborhood had only one rocking-chair, it passed 
from house to house for the use of convalescents. 

By many of the surviving pioneers lack of something to read 
is one of the most vividly remembered hardships. Through failure 
to understand the limitations of frontier markets and because 
of the difficulties of transportation, relatively few books were 
brought from old homes. Irregular mail service made papers and 
magazines uncertain. For isolated families long intervals passed 
without a trip to the distant post office. “We almost forgot how 
to read,” says one book-lover recently celebrating her hundredth 
birthday. 

Cherokeeans of today carelessly discard a partially used sheet 
of writing paper which to the pioneer would have been a treasure. 
Notes for hundreds of dollars were written on mere scraps of 
paper. Receipts were crowded on the tiniest of fragments. Even 


SNAPSHOTS 


59 


a person who entrusted a valuable document to the pioneer mail 
accepted in such form a certificate of having mailed it. 

The pioneer as trail blazer and wilderness conqueror has been 
duly recorded in song and story, but a bundle of faded letters 
written by a young Virginian 1 on the Texas frontier, doubtless 
typical of many others, reveals a little-sung note in pioneer life— 
the poignant homesickness of pioneer women. The nostalgia, 
bravely concealed from the young planter husband, battling with 
drought and limited equipment, crept into these letters to mother. 

Mails were irregular. Hungry for news. More letters a constant 
plea. Coarse diet a-plenty failed to efface the memory of Virginia 
dainties. Always love was sent to longed-for old servants. Babies 
came. Help was scarce. Disease took its toll. “Two lone graves 
in the wild woods of Texas.” Weary vigils over another sufferer 
“slowly wasting away.” Each year hope of a visit home. Again 
the seven hundred dollars, the carefully calculated cost of the 
round trip, were not forthcoming. “Texas is a poor man’s country. 
You have no idea how many poor men are here. They spent all 
their money coming and can’t leave.” At last hogs and cattle in 
great numbers. “All that Texas can afford” was theirs, yet no 
satisfaction. “I’d rather be poor in Virginia than rich in Texas.” 

Her granddaughter supplements the letters with the tragic con¬ 
clusion of the story. After a joyful start on the yearned-for visit 
home, her grandmother took pneumonia and died without reach¬ 
ing Virginia soil. 

Reading the many yellowed letters graciously unearthed from 
almost forgotten trunks for the author’s benefit, has been one 
of the joys of the collection of material for this volume. Those 
bearing the earliest dates, some being written in the ’30s, had no 
envelopes. The writer signed his name, folded the sheet of paper, 
fastened it with sealing wax and wrote the address on the outside. 
Often it was transported by a “passenger to Texas.” If sent by 
mail, payment of postage was indicated by the notation, “Paid 
.25,” written in the corner where a modern stamp is placed. Later 
home-made envelopes of brown paper protected the letter. A 
village store, or perhaps a blacksmith shop, housed the post office. 

Outgoing mail was also of tremendous importance. Relatives 
of the daring emigrant fearfully awaited letters from the wild 
frontier, eagerly read every scant news dispatch relative to little- 
known Texas. Accustomed as we are to thinking of San Jacinto 
as history, it really was once “spot news.” Concerning the Texas 


Grandmother of Mrs. J. S. Sherman of Maydelle. 



60 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Revolution, a sister of William Roark, a Tennessee emigrant of 
1834, wrote as follows: 

“I congratulate you and other friends of civil liberty on the 
result of the late struggle, a result that clearly proves that the 
transplanting of the descendants of the heroes of ’76 but gives 
a new spur to their patriotism and when their rights are invaded 
they can yet do deeds of noble daring unparalleled in the annals 
of heroism. May the administration of your government be as 
wise as its establishment has been glorious.” 


CHAPTER VI 


The Civil War 

While Cherokee County was peacefully establishing itself in 
the late ’40s and early ’50s, ominous things were happening else¬ 
where, events destined to draw Cherokee citizens into war between 
the North and the South. 

In the eyes of the majority of Southern people everything, in¬ 
cluding their allegiance to the Union, depended upon the outcome 
of the 1860 presidential election. In Cherokee County, for the 
most part typically Southern, excitement was intense. The seces¬ 
sion question was publicly debated. On the streets, in the saloons 
and hotels, wherever Cherokee citizens gathered together, the 
Constitution and its guarantees, state rights, abolition and kindred 
topics were subjects of heated discussion. Men, meeting each other 
on the road, stopped to ask, “What will happen next?” 

Added to political apprehension was a dread of the abolitionists 
inciting a negro uprising. To guard against such tragedy the com¬ 
missioners court increased the strength of the patrol companies, 
locally known as “Pat Rollers,” entrusted with keeping watch 
over negro activities in the various precincts. Armed men were 
on guard day and night. “No man can walk fifty steps during 
the night without being hailed by one of these vigilant sentinels,” 
reported the Rusk Enquirer, August 11, 1860. A stranger who 
could not give satisfactory account of himself was in real danger. 
A slave caught off his plantation without a pass was subject to 
severe whipping. In Jacksonville it was reported that on a certain 
day the slaves would revolt. Many white families sat up all night 
with arms in hand. The actions of an old Rusk negress having 
aroused suspicion, the “Pat Rollers” investigated her case, de¬ 
clared her guilty and administered thirty blows with a strap as her 
punishment. 

Travelers arriving at the county seat soon after final election 
returns were announced, were greeted by a strange sight. Over 
the courthouse waved the Lone Star flag of the Texas Republic. 
From the limb of a sweet gum tree, in the northwest corner of 
the square, hung in effigy the president-elect. 

61 


62 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Concerning this event John B. Long, a prominent Rusk pioneer 
who afterward rendered gallant service in the Confederate army, 
wrote: “As to the hanging in effigy of President Lincoln, which 
I personally witnessed, I did not approve it because such a policy 
discounts high standards of ideals and robs us of all true con¬ 
sideration of the facts involved in the issue before us.” 

As early as January, 1860, a company of sixty-seven mounted 
men had been organized in Rusk, with T. T. Gammage as captain. 
Soon after it was known that Lincoln would be the next occupant 
of the White House, the “Lone Star Defenders,” a company of 
Rusk volunteers under the command of General Joseph L. Hogg, 
began drilling. Preparedness became a slogan. 

South Carolina, seceding in December, invited other southern 
states to join her in forming a confederacy. Without waiting for 
Texas to determine her course of action, some of the more im¬ 
petuous Cherokee citizens decided to proclaim their position by 
raising the Lone Star flag in the center of Old Jacksonville’s 
public square. 

On the appointed day the people flocked in from every direction. 
After some oratorical preliminaries, the pole was hoisted. Anvils 
were fired. The crowd cheered. Suddenly the flag-rope broke. The 
seventy-five foot flag-pole, made of two pines spliced together, 
defied all the young men’s attempts to climb it. Yet superstition 
said it would never do to quit. A little negro boy saved the day. 
The flag was raised. 

In January, 1861, General Joseph L. Hogg and J. M. Ander¬ 
son, afterward a law partner of Governor Richard Coke, of Rusk; 
Thomas J. Jennings, of Alto, Cherokee County member of the 
House of Representatives in 1857; and Peter G. Rhome, promi¬ 
nent Jacksonville merchant, represented Cherokee County in the 
citizens’ convention assembled at Austin to consider the secession 
problem. This body, however, submitted the question to popular 
vote and, despite the almost superhuman effort of Governor Sam 
Houston to turn the tide of public opinion in favor of the preser¬ 
vation of the Union, the vote stood 34,415 for and 13,841 against 
secession. 

When war became certain Cherokee County was quick to con¬ 
tribute her share to the defense of the Southern cause. Early in 
1861 the volunteers, known as the “Lone Star Defenders,” re¬ 
organized as a state company composed of Rusk, Jacksonville and 
Larissa men, with Frank M. Taylor in command. No one ex¬ 
pected that General Hogg, the first captain, would enter the war 
in that capacity. Military equipment was varied. Some men had 


THE CIVIL WAR 


63 


rifles, some shotguns, some no guns at all. Numbers carried huge 
chop-knives made in the blacksmith shop. After a meager course 
in military tactics and the acquisition of such horses and baggage 
as could be obtained, the company was ready to join Elkanah 
Greer’s regiment of cavalry in Dallas. 

On Monday morning, June 10, 1861, the population of Rusk 
and vicinity appeared en masse at the Thompson Hotel. 1 to bid 
them goodby. S. B. Barron has left us this description of the 
scene: 

“Men, women and children were on the streets, in tears, to bid 
us farewell. Even rough, hard-faced men whose appearance would 
lead one to believe that they had not shed a tear since boy¬ 
hood, boohooed and were unable to say ‘goodby’.” 

Sadness, however, was at least outwardly short-lived. With the 
flag presented by Cherokee women proudly unfurled, the “Lone 
Star Defenders” marched to Jacksonville, stopping for a barbecue 
dinner. Then on to Dallas, cheered and feasted as they went. As 
Company C, Greer’s Regiment, they were mustered into Con¬ 
federate service. This regiment, afterward known as the Third 
Texas Cavalry, fought in the front ranks throughout the war, 
first in Missouri, later in Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia. 

Omitting details of the long journey to the Missouri front, we 
next find Company C preparing for its first battle. Scores of men 
are writing home. A typical message, taken from S. B. Barron’s 
history of the company, follows: 

My dear—: 

We arrived at Gen. McCulloch’s headquarters about 10 a. m. 
today, tired, dusty, hungry and sleepy after a long, forced march 
from Fort Smith. We are now preparing for our first battle. We 
are under orders to march at eleven o’clock to attack Gen. Lyon’s 
army at daylight. All the boys are busy cooking up three days’ 
rations. I am very well. If I survive to-morrow’s battle I will 
write a postscript. Otherwise this will be mailed to you as it is. 

Affectionately yours, 

Orders to cook three days’ rations! All baggage, including cook¬ 
ing utensils, had been left behind on the forced march. Yet it 
was not for Cherokee men to reason why. They cooked. Even 
biscuit dough, rolled out like a snake and coiled around a small 
wooden stick, was baked before the fire. 


1 Present Ford Station site. 



64 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Days of raiding followed, but when the anticipated battle 
finally began it caught Company C unawares. According to orders 
they were to have moved at 9 p. m., August 9. All night, in a 
drizzling rain, they stood to horse for the signal which, through 
somebody’s blunder, never came. Daylight found a few of the 
men preparing to boil coffee, but the majority were asleep on the 
ground. Some horses had slipped the reins from sleeping hands 
and were grazing in a near-by field. Captain Taylor had gone 
to regimental headquarters for instructions. Suddenly shells came 
crashing through the timber above their heads. Almost simul¬ 
taneously another battery opened fire. The battle was on. 

After some seven hours of fighting the battle of Oak Hill, 
also called Wilson’s Creek, was proved a Confederate victory. 
In Company C four men were wounded. Leander W. Cole, of 
Larissa, died. 

At home relatives and friends eagerly awaited news. The hourly 
telegraph bulletins of World War days were unknown. Mail serv¬ 
ice had been interrupted. Letters from the front, brought by fur¬ 
loughed soldiers, were irregular. Old-timers still vividly recall 
great crowds standing on the courthouse square in Rusk while 
the editor of the one county newspaper stood on a goods box 
and read the first public reports, printed letters from Taylor’s men 
describing their first battle. 

The knowledge that Cherokee blood had actually been spilled 
proved a strong stimulus to enlistment. Other companies, organ¬ 
ized in rapid succession, brought the total enlistment to some two 
thousand. Business was practically at a standstill, the majority 
of stores being closed because owners and clerks had enlisted. 
Court, for the most part, was discontinued. From letters written 
to soldiers at the front one learns that in 1861 there was nothing 
doing and nothing talked but war—“The town will soon be com¬ 
posed mainly of women and children ... No money here . . . 
They ought to be hanged.” The last statement refers to men who 
had not enlisted. 

The second company to leave the county was under the com¬ 
mand of Captain Jack Davis. Joining the Seventh Texas Infantry 
at Marshall as Company E, it was immediately sent east of the 
Mississippi River. In October, 1861, the “Cherokee Cavalry,” 
commanded by Captain R. B. Martin, became Company I of the 
Tenth Texas Cavalry. After fighting in northeast Arkansas, this 
regiment was also transferred to the East. 

Although these three companies, units in the Third Texas 
Cavalry, the Seventh Texas Infantry and the Tenth Texas 


THE CIVIL WAR 


65 


Cavalry, were the only organized companies who went from 
Cherokee County to serve in the Tennessee Army, eighteen ad¬ 
ditional companies were formed under command of the following 
captains: Thomas R. Bonner, G. W. Knox, James Taylor, James 
F. Wiggins, W. G. Engledow, W. B. Campbell, Dan Egbert, O. 
M. Doty, John T. Aycock, Thomas J. Johnson, James C. Francis, 
W. F. Thompson, W. H. Mullins, John T. Wiggins, Patrick 
Henry, W. W. Foard, John B. Sydnor and J. C. Maples. Captain 
J. F. Duke organized a company in the vicinity of Alto just before 
the war closed which rendered service in maintaining order during 
the days of demobilization. Many Cherokee volunteers joined 
companies organized in adjacent counties. 

Cherokee County had two Confederate camps, one on the 
Guinn hill north of Rusk, the other on Crockett Street in south¬ 
west Rusk. A prison camp was established some two and one- 
half miles south of Rusk on the old Jim Hogg Highway, now 
the T. C. (Lum) Alexander farm. After the battle of Mansfield, 
Louisiana, it was crowded with prisoners. The stockade is gone, 
but the ruins of the old well locate the site. 

As the war continued, the maintenance of a reliable medium 
of exchange became a grave problem. By the summer of 1862 
necessity for change had flooded the county with currency which 
had been issued in various parts of the state. Its redemption was 
extremely uncertain. In this emergency the commissioners court 
ordered Chief Justice M. Priest to contract for the printing of 
$10,000 in change bills, ranging from ten cents to five dollars, to 
be redeemed when as much as twenty dollars was presented. 

The heroism of the Cherokee soldier is silently proclaimed 
by the monument erected to his honor on the courthouse square in 
Rusk. This monument was made possible by the contributions 
of the Frank Taylor Chapter, United Daughters of the Con¬ 
federacy, supplemented by private subscriptions ranging from five 
cents to one hundred and fifty-five dollars. Miss Frankie Tatham 
unveiled it, October 31, 1907, in the presence of a great crowd. 

For a number of years the Confederate veterans maintained 
two organizations in the county. In 1925 the great death rate led 
the Ross-Ector camp at Rusk to join the James J. A. Barker 
camp at Jacksonville. 

Her contribution of men, however, was not the only service 
Cherokee County rendered the Confederacy. Her natural re¬ 
sources proved of invaluable assistance. 

The abundant supply of salt offered for sale at a nominal price, 
after having been used as ballast in the ships coming from Liver- 


66 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


pool for cotton cargoes, had made it unnecessary for early Chero¬ 
kee settlers to resort to the Indian method of boiling the water 
from the shallow wells in the salines on the Neches River. When 
the Federal blockade cut off the former source of supply, the de¬ 
velopment of the salt industry near Bullard not only satisfied 
Cherokee needs but helped to furnish this essential commodity 
to less fortunate districts. 

Interested primarily in farming, Cherokee pioneers likewise 
made no effort to utilize the county’s extensive iron resources 
until the war closed the regular channels for obtaining iron imple¬ 
ments and utensils. In 1863 Doctor C. G. Young, of Monroe, 
Louisiana, organized the Chappel Hill Manufacturing Company 
which established a foundry five miles west of Jacksonville. In 
connection with it two sawmills and two brickyards ran day and 
night. In order to supply the workmen, about seventy-five white 
men and several hundred negroes, a large store was built for 
which goods were hauled from Matamoras by six and eight-mule 
teams. Although a majority of the negroes preferred to continue 
work after the war closed, a boiler accident, in which one or 
two were killed and several injured, soon proved an almost fatal 
blow to the business. Not long afterward it was raided by a gang 
of jayhawkers. These reverses led to the abandonment of the 
enterprise. 

In May, 1864, B. E. Jones and G. W. Weatherford, of Louis¬ 
iana, together with G. S. Doty, T. L. Philleo, John B. Sydnor, 
J. C. Green, W. W. Foard and F. M. Hicks, of Cherokee County, 
obtained a twenty-five year charter for the Cherokee Furnace 
Company, with a capital stock not to exceed a million dollars. The 
plant was located some nine miles south of Rusk, on the William 
Curl survey, and largely operated by refugee negroes from 
Louisiana. Some two years later the furnace chilled full of melted 
ore and work was discontinued. T. L. Philleo, of Rusk, bought the 
property and, under the name Cherokee Iron Works, utilized the 
supply of pig iron, supplemented by the purchase of old castings, 
in the production of cooking utensils and plow tools. The old 
furnace still stands as a monument to Cherokee’s answer to the 
Confederacy’s need. 

In order to help supply the Confederate shortage of arms, 
the Texas government appropriated $5,000 to be used in the man¬ 
ufacture of guns. One contract was given to Whitescarver, Camp¬ 
bell & Company, whose gunshop was located in west Rusk, on 
Highway No. 22, opposite the present site of the Alvin Sherman 
residence. Production was necessarily slow. In 1863 a visitor 


THE CIVIL WAR 


67 


reported the daily output was four rifles, for which the state paid 
thirty dollars each. 

During the war the Confederate government built a large com¬ 
missary in Rusk where it stored hundreds of barrels and hogs¬ 
heads of Louisiana sugar. After the collapse of the Confederacy 
the people, especially the war-widows, claimed this government 
property. The soldiers, who at first tried to guard it, finally gave 
way before popular demand. In some unknown way, the report 
started that the sugar-house would be broken open on a certain 
day. Crowds of men and women rushed in. In the mad scramble 
which ensued vast quantities of the coveted sugar were wasted. 
According to tradition, the ground had almost a six-inch covering. 
The prospect of obtaining this long-deprived-of article of food 
apparently drove people wild. Later the Federal troops, stationed 
in Rusk for a short time, confiscated the sugar wherever found. 

Cherokee, like other counties, suffered to some extent from the 
spirit of lawlessness which prevailed in those days of confusion 
following the demobilizing of the Confederate forces. Some ex¬ 
soldiers, without money and employment, felt justified in seizing 
private as well as government property. Such robberies made busi¬ 
ness men slow to reopen their stores. 

Although local organizations existed, Cherokee County had 
little need for Ku Klux activity. According to the Rusk Observer 
of December, 1867, Cherokee negroes showed little interest in 
voting, expressing themselves willing to take “Ole Marster’s” 
advice in election affairs. Apparently the only crisis in Cherokee’s 
reconstruction era was the indignity suffered in the so-called 
“election outrages” of 1870. The conduct of Cherokee citizens 
during this four-day election was made the subject of an unfairly 
conducted investigation by Lieutenant Thomas Sheriff, of the 
State Police, on the ground of alleged fraud and intimidation of 
freedmen. 

Census figures for 1870 afford a sidelight on the cost of the 
four years of civil strife. With practically no immigration to 
balance war casualties and emigration to new frontiers, there were 
one thousand less people in the county. The increased area of non- 
cultivated land resulting from shortage of labor caused a material 
decrease in the county’s wealth. Educational reports suffered in 
comparison with those of the ’50s. Since the majority of male 
teachers and the boys who ordinarily would have been students 
were in the army, a large percentage of the schools were closed 
during the war. In 1869 less than seven per cent of the population 
attended school. In 1849, when white children alone were eligible 


68 A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 

to attend, more than fourteen per cent of the population was 
enrolled. 

This chapter would be incomplete without tribute to the women 
of Cherokee County who so courageously shouldered the burdens 
of those trying years of conflict. To the natural hardships of 
pioneering were added the new difficulties in securing supplies. 
Every housewife was taxed to the utmost in finding substitutes 
for articles no longer available. Corn cob ashes and certain mineral 
waters furnished soda. Okra seed, parched barley, wheat, rye and 
sweet potatoes took the place of coffee. Sassafras was used for tea. 
Beverages were sweetened with sorghum unless one was fortunate 
enough to find wild honey. Grease was used sparingly. Only those 
who grew wheat had flour. The wearing out of cooking utensils 
was a matter of grave concern, even though the presence of iron 
plants gave Cherokee housewives the advantage over their sisters 
in some parts of the state. Thorns were used for pins. Persimmon 
seeds, or molds of gourds, covered with cloth, took the place of 
buttons. Loss of a sewing needle was a household calamity. As 
leather became more and more scarce, women learned to make 
their own uppers for shoes. Sometimes soles were made of wood. 

Yet, in addition to the toil necessitated by assuming direction 
of home affairs while husbands and fathers were at the front, 
these women found time to spin, weave and sew for the soldiers 
encamped in their midst and those already on the firing line. 

Many are the stories of individual heroism, but the classic 
tale is the famous ride of Mrs. Amanda Spear, of Jacksonville. 
When her husband enlisted in the company of Captain J. C. 
Maples, she was left alone with two small children dependent 
upon her for support. Word soon came that Cicero Spear was at 
Little Rock, critically ill with typhoid-pneumonia. Amanda de¬ 
termined to bring him home. 

To accomplish this task she rode horse-back, carrying a year- 
old baby in her arms, on the three-hundred-mile journey to the 
Arkansas capital. The baby got sick, rain fell in torrents, snow 
was knee-deep on a level, bridges went out. Yet, despite it all, Mrs. 
. Spear reached her husband. Three months later she brought him 
safely home. 2 

2 In 1913, at the request of the veterans of the James J. A. Barker camp, Mrs. 
Spear wrote the story of this ride. Her brother-in-law, who was returning to his 
command, accompanied her. 



CHAPTER VII 


Improved Transportation Facilities 

RAILROADS 

The opening of the ’70s found Cherokee County without a 
railroad but confidently awaiting the materialization of this asset 
out of the dreams of one of her own citizens. 

INTERNATIONAL AND GREAT NORTHERN 

Impoverished but undaunted by the calamities which had be¬ 
fallen his iron plant at the close of the Civil War, Doctor C. G. 
Young, once president of the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Texas 
Railroad Company, moved to Rusk and continued to vision the 
possibilities of East Texas. The result of his dreams was the 
Houston and Great Northern Railroad Company, chartered in 
1866, to begin at Houston and build northward to Red River. 

The first draft of the Houston and Great Northern charter was 
dictated in the log cabin law office of Bonner & Bonner in Rusk. 
M. H. Bonner and Doctor Young were among the incorporators 
authorized to receive stock subscriptions. Securing some five 
million dollars by personal appeal to William Walter Phelps, Moses 
Taylor, John Jacob Astor and other New York financiers, Doctor 
Young moved to Houston and was elected president of his per¬ 
fected organization. 

In the meantime excitement prevailed in the Cherokee county 
seat. According to the charter the proposed road was to pass as 
near Rusk as “cheapness of construction, practicability and the 
general advantage of the country would permit.” At a big barbe¬ 
cue, in addition to some cash, about two thousand acres of Chero¬ 
kee land subscriptions were secured. Although work had not 
begun, his erstwhile fellow-citizens trusted Doctor Young to carry 
out his plans. After twenty-five years of dependence upon ox- 
wagon and stagecoach, Rusk was to have train service. 

Then the blow fell. Doctor Young met his tragic death (August 
11, 1871) in the wreck of a construction train on which he was 
making a tour of inspection of the roadbed out of Houston. The 
road had a new president. Surveyors made reports. Railroad con- 

69 


70 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


struction through the Rusk hills was pronounced too costly. Ander¬ 
son County voted $150,000 in bonds and the route was changed 
to connect with the International Railroad at Palestine. Thus 
Jacksonville, instead of Rusk territory, became the scene of action 
when railroad teams and scrapers first appeared. 

The International Railroad Company, building from Laredo 
northward, began its extension from Palestine into Cherokee 
County in the fall of 1871. In August, 1872, the first passenger 
train puffed its way into Jacksonville, affording her younger citi¬ 
zens their initial view of an “iron horse.” The Palestine-Troup 
division was formally opened November 9. On May 27, 1873, the 
Houston and Great Northern section of the line was completed 
to Palestine. 

The International and the Houston and Great Northern com¬ 
panies consolidated to form the International and Great Northern 
Railroad Company. This consolidation, effected by an agreement 
February 19, 1872, was not approved by legislative action until 
1874-75. 


THE RUSK TRAMWAY 

Out of the bitterness of disappointment over the loss of the 
Houston and Great Northern Railroad was born the Rusk Tram¬ 
way, a town’s desperate effort to save itself from commercial ruin. 

A six-ton engine, puffing and snorting over a track of wooden 
rails, valiantly pulling a street railway passenger coach and three 
tiny flat cars—such was the historic old county seat’s first rail 
communication with the world, via intersection with the Inter¬ 
national and Great Northern at Jacksonville. 

The rails of native pine were constantly warping and buckling. 
The section foreman always had a repair job. Passengers rarely 
made a trip without getting off to assist in putting the train back 
on the track. Freight thrown from the open cars had to be picked 
up. Cotton wagons were known to beat it to Jacksonville. Towns 
with standard lines jeered at it. But to Rusk of the ’70s, its proud 
promoter, no road of steel could have been more grand. Its story 
constitutes a most unique chapter in railroad history. 

On May 2, 1874, the incorporators secured a charter for the 
Rusk Transportation Company to build and operate a first-class 
tram railway, or horse-car road, from any point on the I. and G. 
N. to Rusk. These incorporators were C. C. Francis, T. L. Philleo, 
George D. Neely, J. J. Mallard, B. B. Cannon, J. C. Francis, A. 
Jackson, H. W. Graber, S. B. Barron, R. B. Reagan, R. H. 
Guinn, J. T. Wiggins, F. W. Bonner, M. J. Whitman, S. A. 


IMPROVED TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES 71 


Willson, John G. Slover, W. T. Long, J. E. Dillard, J. H. Sartain, 
J. R. Newton, J. B. Reagan and W. L. Byrd. Among the pro¬ 
moters were ministers, merchants, lawyers and doctors. The 
capital stock was $500,000 with the privilege of increasing it to 
one million. Shares were fixed at fifty dollars each. 

After a preliminary organization on May 7, the following 
officers were elected at the stockholders’ meeting, June 5, 1874: 
Reverend N. A. Davis, president and financial agent; F. W. Bon¬ 
ner, vice-president; S. B. Barron, secretary; John T. Wiggins, 
treasurer; S. A. Willson, attorney. 

Although the original plan had been to make the tram entirely a 
home project, the urgent need for cash soon led to the solicitation 
of outside subscriptions and finally to the acceptance of U. S. 
currency instead of the previously required gold in payment of 
stock. Although stock was sold in Galveston and Tyler and all 
non-resident Rusk property owners were solicited to share in the 
enterprise, Jacksonville was made the center of the drive. Negotia¬ 
tions remind one of a determined lover wooing a very coy maid. 

Early in June the sales committee sent to Jacksonville reported 
a cordial reception but no concrete results. On June 15, in behalf 
of Jacksonville citizens, M. D. Morris wrote as follows: “We 
have not sufficient reliable data on which to base calculations of 
receipts and expenditures of the road per annum . . . Are in favor 
of assisting you in the enterprise in any reasonable way but want 
a little more light on the subject and think the importance of the 
undertaking demands should have it before agreeing to take stock. 
All you have to do is to convince the people it will be a success 
and a safe investment with reasonable probability of getting their 
money back in eight or ten years. Then you will receive hearty 
cooperation. We believe it will be to the mutual advantage of 
Rusk and Jacksonville to build the road as soon as possible, but 
let us go cautiously inasmuch as we are inexperienced in building 
tram railroads. Hope you will duly consider the resolutions which 
will reach you tomorrow before you definitely locate your road 
to any other point.” 

After giving estimates as to cost of construction, the Rusk 
Transportation Company concluded its reply as follows: “The 
cost of running will depend upon the volume of business, economy 
of management, rates, etc. Your opinion on this is as good as 
ours. We have nothing to conceal from your people. Engineers 
are now running a line to Reynolds. If you aim to cooperate, what 
you do we expect you to do decidedly and promptly.” 

After making surveys to the three prospective terminals— 


72 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Reynolds, the nearest point on the I. and G. N., which was some 
three miles east of Jacksonville, and Jacksonville—engineers re¬ 
ported the cheapest route would be to Jacksonville. The vote was 
taken and Jacksonville chosen. Officials, however, were pledged 
to secrecy. Danger of losing the terminal might yet lure sub¬ 
scriptions. 

Eagerly pressing his suit, President Davis offered to guarantee 
the terminal if Jacksonville would take $5,000 in stock and pro¬ 
cure the right-of-way for five miles. Jacksonville delayed a reply. 
Tram officials voted to permit payment of the $5,000 in United 
States currency, such concession necessitating granting a premium 
on earlier gold payments. On July 11, the committee joyfully re¬ 
ported Jacksonville buying $2,000 stock and procuring the right- 
of-way from the majority of the landowners at that end of the 
line. 

About the middle of July, with only $22,000 worth of “good 
and available stock,” the company decided to borrow money and 
let the contract. Ward, Dewey & Company, lessees of the peni¬ 
tentiary, were the successful bidders, agreeing to take land, which 
had been accepted as stock payment, at twenty-five cents per acre 
as part payment. Their convict laborers arrived August 5, 1874. 

For the next eight months company officials, minus a Hill or 
a Harriman, waged a grim battle. Cash was always insufficient 
for their needs. The minutes of almost every meeting record ef¬ 
forts to secure additional loans. Time and again work was kept 
going only by loans from individual stockholders. 

Yet no obstacle could quench the flame of faith. In February, 
1875, an amendment to the charter permitted future extension of 
the road, southward through Alto to Sabine Pass as a terminal, 
northward through Larissa to Tyler. The idea of using mule 
power was abandoned. A locomotive, gaily lettered the “Chero¬ 
kee,” was ordered to pull the street railway passenger coach, the 
“Gov. Coke,” and the three flat cars, which constituted the com¬ 
pany’s rolling stock. James A. Ross, of Pittsburg, was imported 
to run it. 

At last effort was rewarded. At a total cost of $47,433.55 the 
Rusk-Jacksonville section of the road was ready to operate. Leav¬ 
ing Jacksonville at 5 p. m., April 29, 1875, the Cherokee made its 
maiden trip. Two and one-half hours later pandemonium broke 
loose at the Rusk terminal. 1 


1 The terminal was on Highway No. 22, about one-half mile from the court¬ 
house square. 



IMPROVED TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES 73 


Regular trips, with John T. Wiggins as conductor, began May 
24, 1875, and President Davis concluded his annual report as 
follows: 

“This is the second effort you have made to secure to your 
community the means of transportation and direct communication 
with the arteries of trade and the cities of commerce. Your first 
effort was by building the I. and G. N. Railroad. ... To it you 
gave one of your best citizens. You sent him abroad. You stretched 
out your hand for help. The help was found but the hand that took 
hold of you crushed you with your own enterprise. But in this 
your second enterprise you have relied upon yourselves. ... At 
last your Cherokee, with glowing furnace and flying wheels, 
speeds its way over your own railroad. ... we rejoice over the 
deliverance from the grave in which the I. and G. N. buried us. 
The old hulk that was foundering has been righted up, the leaks 
have been corked and, with steady helm and full-bent sail, she is 
riding into port. Your town is safe.” 

The directors, however, foresaw the danger of being content 
with a wooden track. In the second annual stockholders’ meeting 
they urged the replacement of the pine rails with twenty-five 
pound iron rails and the substitution of a narrow-gauge railway 
passenger car for the street railway coach. As the most feasible 
way of financing these improvements they suggested a sale of 
bonds. No action was taken and the predicted trouble was not 
long in coming. 

By August 2 the condition of the track was so bad that traffic 
had to be discontinued until it could be repaired. Debts continued 
to accumulate. On September 22, 1875, officials leased the tram 
and rolling stock to James A. Ross and John T. Wiggins. These 
gentlemen, however, were handicapped by the same difficulties and 
the company realized no profit from the transaction. No wonder 
the committee appointed to write the centennial history of Chero¬ 
kee County in 1876 voiced the following sentiment: “We cannot 
but believe we would be happier and more prosperous if there were 
not a railroad west of the Mississippi.” 

By the third annual stockholders’ meeting it had become ap¬ 
parent that the enterprise could not succeed unless iron could be 
substituted for the wooden rails. Iron rails, however, meant the 
investment of more capital and capitalists had no faith in the 
project. The roadbed and rolling stock had no attraction as 
security. As a last resort the company decided to transfer its 
claims to parties able to iron the road, provided such persons could 
be induced to accept the property and pay the indebtedness. Con- 


74 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


tinued efforts were unsuccessful and in January, 1879, the tram 
was sold at auction. F. W. Bonner, E. L. Gregg, G. D. Neely, 
J. J. Mallard, C. C. Francis, J. T. Wiggins, S. B. Barron and 
John B. Reagan bought it for $90.50. While the track was usable, 
the road was leased and the flat cars, drawn by mules, were used 
to haul lumber to Jacksonville and building materials to the 
penitentiary. 

Thus passed the Rusk tramway. Rusk of today laughs at the 
venture. Yet brief as was its span, both in mileage and in years, 
the road played no insignificant part in the town’s development. 
In addition to affording the first rail communication with the 
world, it helped to bring the Cotton Belt to Rusk. Appearing be¬ 
fore the penitentiary locating commission, Doctor C. C Francis, 
then state senator, used this connection with the I. and G. N., to¬ 
gether with the work done by the Chappel Hill Manufacturing 
Company and the Cherokee Furnace Company iron plants, as 
forceful argument in favor of the Cherokee location of the state’s 
iron plant. 

Looking backward, one sees the situation more clearly perhaps 
than its promoters could see it. Had the tram officials decided to 
intersect the I. and G. N. three miles east of Jacksonville instead 
of at Jacksonville, the county’s development might have pursued 
a different course. According to some of the men conversant with 
the situation at the time, the Texas and New Orleans Railroad 
would probably have followed a different route, ironed the tram 
roadbed and built its main line through the county seat. 

COTTON BELT 

The Kansas and Gulf Short Line Railroad Company, incor¬ 
porated by W. S. Herndon and associates in 1880, afforded the 
Cherokee county seat its first ironed road. The Tyler-Rusk di¬ 
vision was completed December 18, 1882. This was soon after¬ 
ward extended through Alto and opened to Lufkin, July 1, 1885. 
In 1887 it passed into the hands of the St. Louis, Arkansas and 
Texas Railway Company. On January 13, 1891, the property was 
sold to the Tyler Southeastern Railway Company. Eight years 
later it passed into the hands of the St. Louis Southwestern Rail¬ 
road Company of Texas, popularly known as the Cotton Belt. 

In 1895 the narrow-gauge track was converted into a standard 
road. Sufficient convicts were put to work to effect the entire 
change from Tyler to Lufkin in one Sunday. 

STATE RAILROAD 

The State Railroad was begun in the late ’80s to connect 


IMPROVED TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES 75 


the Rusk prison with the convict camps near the Neches River. 
In 1907, as a result of strenuous effort on the part of Rusk and 
Palestine citizens, the legislature ordered the extension of the 
line on the ground that the state needed the road to develop its 
timber interests. In September, 1909, the first regular passenger 
train ran from Rusk to Palestine. It did not prove a financial suc¬ 
cess and in 1921 the Southern Pacific lines acquired a five-year 
lease on the road, renewed in 1926. 

TEXAS AND NEW ORLEANS 

In 1902, partially attracted by the possibilities of the fruit in¬ 
dustry, the Texas and New Orleans Railroad Company built its 
main line through the Jacksonville territory. Five years later the 
legislature required the construction of the Rusk-Gallatin branch 
line. The insertion of this clause in the bill permitting the con¬ 
solidation of the T. and N. O. with the old Texas Trunk was 
largely due to the effort of the Cherokee County representative, 
Frank B. Guinn. On Sunday, May 2, 1909, the first regular 
passenger train pulled out of Rusk with eighty-five passengers. 
In recent years good highways and trucks have practically de¬ 
stroyed both its freight and passenger business. 

TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONES 

Although not classified as transportation facilities, the telegraph 
and telephone systems have proved such valuable assets to shippers 
they are given recognition in this chapter. 

The first telegraph line through Cherokee County was built in 
the early ’50s along the stage route from Henderson. In many 
places the wire was simply fastened to a tree. Naturally “such a 
new-fangled affair” provoked curiosity and aroused skepticism. 

“You can’t fool me,” boasted one wise citizen, “Anybody could 
reach up and get the paper off that wire.” 

Some old-timers best remember this early telegraph service by 
the report of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender. At first the only 
thing made public was the fact that sad news had come. Tensely 
people waited. Three days later the message was released. 

In January, 1880, the Western Union Telegraph Company 
established service between Rusk and Jacksonville. 

The East Texas Telephone Company built a line in Cherokee 
County in the late ’90s, service being first limited to long distance 
calls. George A. Vining began to experiment with local connec¬ 
tions at the county seat by putting a telephone in his own residence 
and another in the residence of his business partner. The store 


76 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


served as “central.” Soon the number was increased to eight; 
Rusk had a telephone system. During the first two years of the 
present century the commissioners court authorized the construc¬ 
tion of a number of lines connecting different Cherokee towns. 
In July, 1901, telephones were installed in the courthouse. 

AUTOMOBILES 

A. O. Kehm, an official at the penitentiary, is credited with 
bringing the first automobile to Cherokee County, about 1905. 
Doctor J. M. Brittain was the owner of the second car, a second¬ 
hand five-passenger machine for which he paid $1,800 in March, 
1909, the obligation being met in land. When the “Red Rambler,” 
with its driver, arrived by train most of Jacksonville was present 
to see the first run. Much to the chagrin of its new owner, it 
stalled in the sand before reaching the business section. By 
January, 1910, Jacksonville boasted three cars. In 1912 the pur¬ 
chase of a new car, or an automobile trip, was still front page 
news. In October, 1912, the Banner reported four machines 
“started on the perilous trip to Dallas—S. Z. Alexander, H. P. 
Tilley, Doctor W. B. Stokes and M. P. Alexander—via Palestine, 
Corsicana and Waxahachie. When only a short distance beyond 
Gum Creek, M. P. Alexander’s car was disabled by breaking a 
rear axle. The other three cars were two days making the hazard¬ 
ous trip.” By 1913 the county had over one hundred cars. A decade 
later the number had increased to twenty-five hundred. During the 
first eight months of 1934, according to statistics in the tax col¬ 
lector’s office, 6,207 automobiles were registered. Of this number 
4,520 were passenger cars, 846 commercial and 841 farm trucks. 

HIGHWAYS 

In 1893 a county newspaper proclaimed “Cherokee’s need is 
better wagon roads.” Twenty years later, when automobiles were 
coming on the scene, the same crying need existed. By this time, 
however, continued editorial pleas, reinforced by community mass 
meetings, began to produce results. The governor’s “Good Road 
Days,” November 5-6, 1913, found Cherokee stores closed. Mer¬ 
chants and farmers, side by side, labored for their mutual bene¬ 
fit. The Cherokee road building program was under way. 

The first road bond issue was voted by Road District No. 1 
(Jacksonville), October 21, 1916, for $250,000. The next warrant 
issue was by the county as a whole for $200,000 to construct the 
Jim Hogg and Roger Q. Mills Highways. In 1919 Road District 
No. 2 (Rusk), voted a $350,000 bond issue. Later Road District 


IMPROVED TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES 77 


No. 3 (Alto), voted $300,000 and Road District No. 4 (Mt. Sel- 
man), $125,000 bonds. 

The first hard-surfaced road was the Tyler highway into Jack¬ 
sonville. This was followed by the Jacksonville-Palestine road. 
Next the Jim Hogg Highway was rebuilt and hard-surfaced. The 
present decade has witnessed the hard-surfacing of the Jackson- 
ville-Frankston, Jacksonville-Henderson and the new Jacksonville- 
Rusk highways. 


CHAPTER VIII 


Development of Natural Resources—Iron 

No iron was taken from Cherokee’s red, ore-encrusted hills 
for nearly two decades after the Civil War plants were closed. 
Then the state went into the iron business at Rusk. 

STATE DEVELOPMENT 

In 1875 Governor Richard Coke, acting under legislative in¬ 
structions, appointed five commissioners, including the late Cap¬ 
tain E. L. Gregg, of Rusk, to locate a branch penitentiary north¬ 
east of the Trinity River which should use convict labor in 
making iron. Employing an iron ore expert and visiting every 
locality containing iron in any appreciable quantity, these com¬ 
missioners decided that Rusk had the maximum amount of easily 
mined ore. 

The penitentiary was established and the “Old Alcalde,” a 
twenty-five-ton charcoal furnace, was put into blast in February, 
1884. After many ups and downs the state made its last run 
some twenty-five years later. Had the penitentiary system’s head¬ 
quarters been in the iron belt and its chief officials as interested 
in iron as in farming, the history of its iron venture would doubt¬ 
less have been far different. But to most of its ever-changing, 
non-resident officials the iron business was a mystery in the be¬ 
ginning and remained a mystery to the end. Otherwise many a 
colorful crisis might have been averted. 

According to the late F. B. Guinn, 1 the “Old Alcalde” was too 
small and antiquated to have been the main support of eight 
hundred or a thousand convicts, even if there had been a con¬ 
siderable streak of gold in the output and it had operated at full 
capacity at all times. As a matter of fact, it operated about one- 
third of the time and then often in a small way. Yet always, the 
Guinn report continues, it was charged with the maintenance of 
the entire Rusk prison population, many of whom were incapaci- 

1 Mr. Guinn knew the story of the iron industry as chairman of the committee 
on penitentiaries during two terms in the legislature and as assistant financial 
agent of the penitentiaries, with direct supervision of the Rusk iron plant. 

78 



DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES 79 


tated for work. Since the branch penitentiary had been established 
to make iron, all losses were charged to the iron industry, regard¬ 
less of whether they had been incurred for the care of invalids, 
by deficits in other prison industries, by improvements and repairs 
in the plant, by idleness or by actual running loss. 

What percentage of this was properly chargeable will probably 
never be known, but it seems that non-operation, rather than 
operation, was the root of the iron troubles. 

In 1904 the “Old Alcalde” was replaced by the “Sam Lanham,” 
a fifty-ton coke furnace. A cast-iron pipe plant with a daily ca¬ 
pacity of over thirty tons and a machine shop were added. During 
the Campbell administration a $28,000 power plant was a part 
of further new equipment. 

Sadirons, andirons and sashweights were manufactured. Ac¬ 
cording to the Cherokee Herald, September 4, 1889, the iron 
frame of the massive dome of the State Capitol was cast and 
framed at the Rusk plant. 

Under the able direction of John L. Wortham as financial agent 
these industries were so successfully operated during the Lanham 
administration that the $150,000 appropriated for their use by 
the 28th Legislature was returned to the treasury. During the 
boom days just prior to the panic of 1907 it was not a question 
of making sales but of getting cars in which to make shipments, 
the lack of adequate railroad facilities being one of the great 
drawbacks, not only in shipping out products but in obtaining 
the supplies of coke and limestone essential to operation. 

In October, however, the panic brought business to a standstill 
and the plant was shut down. Reopened in 1908, it was rapidly 
recovering until apparently unfair burdens and discriminations 
again brought trouble. Concerning the situation in 1908, F. B. 
Guinn made the following report: 

“We were getting along nicely and paying our debts rapidly. 
Suddenly, without previous warning, the men were again ordered 
away to the farms. With about thirty-five men, whom we per¬ 
suaded the superintendent to leave us, and some one-armed and 
one-legged men picked up about the prison, we tried to fill orders 
for pipe. In a short time even these were ordered to work on the 
State railroad and all iron work stopped. To make bad matters 
worse, a crew from the railroad force tore up the ore bed track 
to get rails to build a tram into the timber supplying the State 
sawmill. 

“The next year we got a loan of $100,000, rebuilt the ore track, 
invested in some new equipment necessary to economical opera- 


80 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


tion and started to fill contracts. Ten days later the furnace showed 
a hot spot and we shut down to reline it. At this inauspicious 
moment the financial agent paid us a visit. In a day or two, the 
Chairman of the Penitentiary Board wired us not to reline, despite 
the fact that we had on the ground not only the brick for relining 
but $20,000 worth of coke and limestone. In addition, there were 
10,000 tons of mixed ore and $40,000 in contracts for iron pipe 
on the books.” 

Soon afterward the Board closed the plant indefinitely. Thus 
ended the third effort to operate the blast furnace during the 
Campbell administration. According to official verdict at Austin 
the business had proved a losing proposition. 

During the following years of inactivity the machinery de¬ 
teriorated and offered no attraction to investors until the World 
War gave rise to an abnormal demand for steel and iron. The 
property was then sold to L. P. Featherstone and associates of 
Beaumont. These purchasers, known as the Texas Steel Company, 
incurred great expense in making repairs necessary to putting the 
furnace into blast. Soon after the plant was reopened financial 
difficulties led to what proved the final shutdown. Their obliga¬ 
tions were not met and in 1929, by court decision, the title re¬ 
verted to the state. 

First and last the state invested some $500,000 in the project. 
After all these expenditures, however, it was pronounced a losing 
proposition and abandoned. For years a gaunt skeleton with 
blackened furnace and rusted girders towered over desolate patches 
of weed-edged slag and unused ore. In 1931 the buildings were 
razed and the site converted into a park for the Rusk State Hos¬ 
pital, which had been established on the penitentiary grounds in 
September, 1919. 2 

Although the public, for the most part, accepted the official 
verdict that the tremendous losses of money necessitated the clos¬ 
ing of the penitentiary plant, the possibility of Cherokee iron de¬ 
velopment is still an open question. The so-called losses which 
figured so prominently in the heated discussions of that day were 
apparently not inherent in the iron industry. 

NEW BIRMINGHAM 

The next act in the drama of East Texas iron has its setting 
two miles east of Rusk in New Birmingham, famous boom city of 

2 In 1934 the Rusk State Hospital has thirty buildings, 2,212 inmates and 254 
employees, including the official staff. The plant is valued at $1,437,854. Doctor 
William Thomas is superintendent. 



DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES 81 


the iron rush of the late ’80s and the early ’90s, carved out of 
forest and heralded as the “Iron Queen of the Southwest.” 
Colorful tales from the lips of those who knew it in its heyday 
reveal the romance and the splendor of its meteoric career. 

Alexander B. Blevins, of Alabama, came to Cherokee County 
to sell sewing machines. Driving through its rich ore districts, he 
visioned a second Birmingham. Fired by his enthusiasm, his 
brother-in-law, W. H. Hammon, a wealthy Calvert attorney, 3 * 5 
furnished the capital for acquiring thousands of acres of land 
options. Blevins then went East and enlisted a group of New 
Yorkers in the project. The result was the formation of the 
Cherokee Land and Iron Company, chartered in March, 1888, 
with a capital stock of one million dollars. H. H. Wibirt, of New 
York, was president; Richard L. Coleman, of St. Louis, vice- 
president. Captain E. L. Gregg and A. B. Blevins were the only 
Texas men on its first board of directors. The new company pur¬ 
chased some twenty thousand acres of selected iron, mineral and 
timber land scattered over the county and planned the city of New 
Birmingham which was to be the center of its iron industries. 

In the minds of its promoters, the success of the new city was 
certain. Despite the handicaps under which it had operated, the 
penitentiary furnace had demonstrated the possibilities of Chero¬ 
kee iron ore. Furthermore, there was no large city near enough to 
interfere with trade and the nearest competitive point was more 
than five hundred miles away. The Cotton Belt had purchased the 
Kansas and Gulf Short Line through Rusk and the Southern 
Pacific was contemplating an extension to New Orleans, which 
would probably bring it through the iron district. No transporta¬ 
tion problem was in the offing. Vast East Texas charcoal-produc¬ 
ing forests and lignite beds were considered adequate sources of 
fuel. In addition to these essentials for the founding of an iron 
city, natural conditions made possible diversified manufacturing 
industries employing skilled laborers. Such a population would 
assure stability and community prosperity. In the opinion of the 
promoters, every factor in the situation had been carefully weighed 
and the venture was destined to succeed. 

On October 12, 1888, the first lot was sold. A year later, quot¬ 
ing the New Birmingham Times, New Birmingham was a city of 
some two thousand inhabitants with graded streets, a street rail¬ 
way, parks and drives, electric lights, a brick business district, the 

3 Hammon was once known as the most brilliant lawyer in Central Texas. 

Until he joined the Greenback party and ran for Governor on the Greenback 

ticket he was in line for high political office. 



82 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


handsomest depot in the state for its size, schools and churches, 
telegraph and express service, and a palatial hotel. 

The Southern Hotel, which the promoting company erected at 
a cost of more than $60,000, was the center of New Birmingham’s 
gay life. Its first register, 4 beginning March 28, 1889, and closing 
February 9, 1890, records guests from twenty-eight states, in¬ 
cluding Jay Gould of railroad fame, and Grover Cleveland, re¬ 
cently come from the presidential chair. Robert A. Van Wyck, 
H. H. Wibirt, James A. Mahoney and other New York financiers 
who had risked their millions in the attempted development of 
Cherokee County’s iron ore were frequently registered. Along 
with the millionaires were citizens from near-by towns come for 
thrill as well as business, and newspaper representatives sent for 
copy. On one day there were guests from eight states. Many a 
royal dinner and dance were staged in the Southern’s great dining- 
hall, finished with curly pine. Even English lords sat at its tables. 

In September, 1889, New Birmingham was incorporated. Joe 
D. Baker, land agent for the New Birmingham Iron and Land 
Company, 5 was elected mayor. The New Birmingham Times 
covered news in metropolitan style. When its first editor, Charles 
A. Edwards, went to Washington, D. C., to represent the St. 
Louis Republic, General John M. Claiborne became editor. On the 
Times staff were Sam Houston, Jr., Dick Collier, later of the 
Kansas City Star, and George McDonald, later publisher of the 
Austin Tribune. Brigman C. Odom, afterward a teacher in the 
Dallas Schools, was the principal of the New Birmingham schools. 
Reverend Thomas Ward White, of Virginia, father of Dabney 
White, widely known East Texan of today, was pastor of the 
Presbyterian Church. Dr. Edwin E. Slosson, spending his 
vacations with his parents in New Birmingham, gathered ma¬ 
terial for the chapters on iron ores in his celebrated work, 
“Creative Chemistry.” 

New Birmingham promoters, however, soon discovered that 
the East was opposed to any iron development in the South and 
West because of interference with markets for its own iron 
products. The New Yorkers then went to London in search of 

4 This register has a colorful story. Left among the debris in the deserted 
hotel office, it was unearthed by the grandchildren of E. C. Dickinson, a promi¬ 
nent New Birmingham attorney. Years later, as a result of much borrowing, it 
was lost. Rescued from a trash pile by Miss Jessie Boone of Rusk, it was 
restored to the original finders. When the oil boom of 1934 again put the spot¬ 
light on New Birmingham, the old register was news copy. 

5 This company had purchased the holdings of the Cherokee Land and Iron 
Company, April 10, 1889. 








Southern Hotel 

Tassie Belle Furnace, New Birmingham 













































































DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES 83 


additional capital. A syndicate of Englishmen came to investigate 
the proposition. 

To fully understand the English reaction to the New Birming¬ 
ham venture it should be remembered that, according to the 
English view, charcoal was essential to the manufacture of good 
iron. Seeing the vast virgin forests of East Texas with their 
promise of an inexhaustible supply of this fuel, they agreed to 
invest a million dollars in the New Birmingham Iron and Land 
Company and five million in development projects for converting 
pig iron into finished products. 6 

Here the trouble began. The attorneys for the English financiers 
warned their clients that the Alien Land Law, recently passed by 
the legislature, would bar them from acquiring any interest in the 
property. In the hope of securing such modification of the dis¬ 
turbing law as would enable them to proceed with development 
plans, the New Yorkers invited Governor James Stephen Hogg 
and his officials to meet the Englishmen at a banquet at the 
Southern Hotel. The governor, however, continued to discourage 
the foreign investors and failure to secure their millions probably 
sounded the death knell of New Birmingham. 7 

But the pending disaster was not yet generally apparent. In 
October, 1891, the New Birmingham Iron and Improvement 
Company, chartered July 13, 1891, as the successor to the New 
Birmingham Iron and Land Company, made the following report 
on New Birmingham industries, which further reveals the mag¬ 
nificent scale on which this mushroom city was built: 

The New Birmingham Iron & Improvement Co...$3,500,000 


Tassie Belle Furnace_ 150,000 

New Birmingham Pipe Works_ 150,000 

Joe D. Baker Brick Co_ 15,000 

New Birmingham Electric Light & Power Co... 25,000 

New Birmingham Steam Laundry_ 5,000 

Cherokee Manufacturing Co_ 500,000 

Southern Hotel Co__ 75,000 

New Birmingham Ice Manufacturing Co_ 25,000 


6 County Surveyor L. T. Moore, formerly a New Birmingham real estate 
dealer, is authority for this statement. 

7 There is a conflict of opinion as to the cause of the New Birmingham fail¬ 
ure. In the heated debate of the Hogg-Clark campaign in 1892 the Hogg sup¬ 
porters maintained it was the Baring Brothers’ failure and not the Alien Land 
Law enacted in the first Hogg administration. When confronted with the 
panicky conditions of the early ’90s and the consequent drop in the price of pig 
iron, the New Birmingham company’s initial financing proved inadequate. 
Herein doubtless lies the basic cause of failure. 











84 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


F. W. Bonner & Sons Bank_ 100,000 

New Birmingham Planing, Sash & Door Factory 25,000 

Times Publishing Co- 10,000 

New Birmingham Building Co_ 50,000 


$4,630,000 

Land Companies— 

Copeland Land Co_$ 50,000 

Kansas & Texas Land Co- 50,000 

Dickinson Land Co_ 100,000 

Number of brick business blocks- 15 

Number of residences_ 300 

Number of men employed at Tassie Belle Furnace 

and ore beds_ 271 


Amount of wages, etc., paid per month_$15,000 to $18,000 

By 1892, however, lot sales showed a significant decline. The 
panic of 1893 caused deferred payments on lots previously sold 
to be defaulted. The Tassie Belle furnace—named for Mrs. 
Blevins—was blown in. The charcoal beds and the power plant 
were destroyed by fire. Their destruction marked the end. The 
Jacksonville Banner, July 2, 1893, reported New Birmingham 
was dead. People moved away and houses fell into decay. By the 
beginning of the 20th century the Iron Queen was numbered 
among Texas ghost cities. For more than a quarter of a century 
after the town was deserted the grand old Southern Hotel, in 
charge of a caretaker, stood guard over the site. It burned March 
31, 1926. In 1932, in the construction of the new Highway 
No. 40, the last gaunt brick shell, once a high school, was razed. 

When the New Birmingham Company went into the hands of 
a receiver, James A. Mahoney purchased the property. In 1906 
the present New Birmingham Development Company was char¬ 
tered, his heirs being the chief stockholders. 8 Through long, lean 
years the new organization clung to the majority of the Cherokee 
acreage in which, in the ’90s, so many millions had been sunk. 
Then a market for its timber helped pay taxes. Later oil lease 
rentals supplemented the timber income. Finally the oil boom 
of 1934, with the discovery well on New Birmingham Develop¬ 
ment Company land, staged a sensational comeback. A telephone 
message from Mrs. Guinn brought Edgar M. Sousa, president 
of the company, from New York to Rusk by swift plane. 

8 F. B. Guinn became the company’s local representative. After his death in 
1932, Mrs. Guinn succeeded him. 














DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES 85 


THE STAR AND CRESCENT 

In 1890-91 the Cherokee Iron Manufacturing Company, incor¬ 
porated by Abraham Brittin, J. Watts Kearney, J. G. Schriever 
and other New Orleans capitalists, built the Star and Crescent 
furnace in the first Dickinson Addition to New Birmingham, 
about a mile east of Rusk. F. W. Bonner, E. C. Dickinson and 
R. A. Barrett were among the Rusk stockholders in the com¬ 
pany, Barrett being local manager of the plant, which employed 
some three hundred men. Unprepared for the drop in the price 
of pig iron occurring soon after it began operation, the company 
failed to weather the panic of 1893. In March, 1894, the property 
was sold at auction to Frank A. Daniels of New Orleans for 
$32,250. The original cost was estimated at $175,000. 

In February, 1907, the Star and Crescent was again “the talk 
of the day.” The iron industry was to be revived. W. H. Oatley, 
president of the Rusk Iron Company, had returned from the 
East where he had purchased material for refitting the abandoned 
furnace. In April newspapers boasted the Star and Crescent 
whistle could be heard three times a day. Elation, however, was 
short-lived. The plant was closed to put in new ovens. The panic 
came and it was never reopened. 

No matter which of the assigned causes was the real reason 
for the failure of the iron projects of the ’90s, no one questions 
the supply of iron ore. Periodically leasing becomes active; a new 
boom looms just around the corner. 

There is, in fact, much to support the theory that development 
will yet come. The discovery of oil and gas will perhaps help 
to solve the fuel problem, which so fatally hampered past 
endeavors. This new fuel can be used in preparing the ore for 
smelting and in all subsequent operations for the manufacture 
of iron products. Gas can operate the machinery for washing 
impurities out of the ore and for driving out moisture. In this 
way the ore can be concentrated from fifty per cent to seventy-five 
per cent metallic iron, thereby reducing the cost of the coke 
necessary to smelt it. Gas can also be used in rolling mills and 
foundries. 

Furthermore, the drilling of oil wells has demonstrated the 
existence of lime deposits for fluxing purposes and coal deposits 
suitable for making coke, the one fuel essential to smelting. 
In New Birmingham days lime was shipped from Austin. Coke 
for use in the state’s “Sam Lanham” furnace was brought from 
West Virginia. 

Although the steel interests have hitherto prevented American 


86 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


capital from financing iron development in the South, the day 
will doubtless come when Northern capital invested in the gas 
and oil business will promote the iron industry as another outlet 
for its fuels. 


CHAPTER IX 


Development of Natural Resources—Timber and Oil 
timber 

White oak, red oak, post oak, blackjack, bluejack, hickory, 
walnut, chinquapin, cherry, pine, cypress, sycamore, sweet gum, 
mulberry, elm, holly, dogwood, maple, locust and so forth— 
practically every variety of timber found in Texas grows in 
Cherokee County. Naturally the old-fashioned sawmill, whip¬ 
sawing a small daily output, was the first manufacturing plant. 
The earliest deeds refer to mills. In 1832 Colonel John Durst 
was operating a sawmill on his vast plantation. Day’s mill on the 
Rusk-Palestine road was a landmark in the ’40s. Joe C. Rushing, 
afterward Cherokee County representative, established the first 
sawmill in the Jacksonville territory, obtaining his “power” by 
building a dam across Gum Creek. Although pioneer houses were 
built of logs, lumber was in demand for floors, window and door 
frames and coffins. The finest of virgin pine was used for rough 
boxing plank. Although some were operated in ante-bellum days, 
steam mills came into general use only after the Civil War. The 
Spain mill on the Rusk-Linwood road and the Pryor mill in the 
Lone Oak community, near Rusk, did an extensive business in 
the post-war decades. 

With outside markets made available by railroad construction, 
the timber industry increased in value during the ’80s and ’90s. 
Among the larger mill operators were Comer Fariss & Dial, and 
C. J. Chronister, both companies located near Forest. C. J. 
Chronister operated under his own name for a number of years. 
Then, in 1896, he sold to the Chronister Lumber Company his 
sawmills and planing mills; fifty-six head of oxen used for 
logging, with their bows, yokes and chains; log wagons; and three 
and one-half miles of steel railway. J. Lipsitz was president of 
the Chronister Lumber Company and S. W. Littlejohn secretary. 
Littlejohn is still the manager of the company, the largest mill 
operators in the county. 

The increased demand of the first decade of the 20th century 
gave still further impetus to the Cherokee lumber industry. 
Although not in the chief timber belt, the Rusk territory received 

87 


88 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


approximately $200,000 in timber money in 1906, sixty-three 
cars of lumber being shipped from Rusk in the month of Novem¬ 
ber. During this sawmill boom, the heyday of the small operator, 
some localities were within the sound of fifteen mill whistles. 
As timber stands were cut out, the owner moved his mill to another 
location. One could trace his trail by hills of rotting sawdust. 
Operators of this period, in addition to some already mentioned 
at earlier dates, include J. A. Bowman, B. H. Everett, Sharp & 
Andrews, and N. A. (Jack) Slover. Among large stationary 
mills established during the decade were the Arkansas Lumber 
Company, largely financed by Missouri capital, with its principal 
office at Wells, and the Blount Decker Lumber Company, organ¬ 
ized at Alto in 1908, with a capital stock of $150,000. 

With the advent of good roads and auto trucks more remote 
timber became marketable. The radius of operation was extended 
from three or four to twenty or more miles from the railroad. 
The post-war period, in which the speculative builder erected 
houses to be sold on the installment plan, led to a persistent 
demand for cheaply manufactured lumber. Its defects could be 
partially covered up with paint and minimized through the use 
of attractive architectural designs. Second growth pine, once 
considered valueless, now found a ready market. Inevitably the 
timber supply in many sections of the county was exhausted and 
mills closed. The curtailment of markets during the depression 
years closed many others and greatly reduced the output of those 
continuing to operate. At present the NR A code restricts the 
output. 

Since 1922 the Southern Pine Lumber Company has main¬ 
tained a camp at Fastrill, twelve miles southwest of Rusk, which 
serves as a base for its extensive logging operations in Cherokee 
County. Today Fastrill has a population of more than six hun¬ 
dred, two churches and a four-teacher school. The company 
furnishes the land, teams and tools for men to farm during off- 
hours and a community canning plant to aid the conservation of 
their produce. 

When business was at its peak the Fastrill monthly payroll was 
$30,000; the annual output fifty million feet of lumber. Fifteen 
hundred trees have been cut in a day. According to Superin¬ 
tendent F. Goetzman, the rings on one tree proved it to be one 
hundred and seventy-five years old. Numbers of the patriarchs 
among the Neches River pines have had more birthdays than the 
Constitution of the United States. Officials estimate that, oper- 


DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES 89 


ating at the present rate, it will take eight or ten years to exhaust 
the Southern pine holdings. 

Under the present government regulations on each acre of 
forest land there must be left one hundred trees, four to seven 
inches; ten trees, seven to eleven inches; and three trees, eleven 
to twelve inches in diameter. 

In addition to the hundreds of mill employees, hundreds of 
Cherokee workmen have found employment as tie-makers and 
basket and crate factory workers. 

The rise of the basket and crate industry is linked with the 
development of the fruit and vegetable industries. Pioneer honors 
in this field belong to Edgar Aber and Fred Haberle. In 1891 
Aber, a general contractor, established a brick plant in Jackson¬ 
ville and in connection with it sold other building materials. 
Haberle, his brother-in-law, worked for him. One evening the 
latter, tired of seeing thousands of Cherokee dollars spent in 
other states for shipping containers, went to the Aber home 
with the suggestion that they make containers out of the Cherokee 
County gum, for which there was then no market. Aber was 
quick to vision the possibilities. The two “went into figures,” 
decided they “could do pretty well at it” and then did it. 

Aber added a veneer machine and several basket stapling 
machines to his wood-working plant and began to test their 
theories of production. Cottonwood and poplar had hitherto 
furnished material for the basket and crate industry; people 
were doubtful about gum. The new product had a hard fight 
getting on the market but, despite predictions of failure by 
always-present skeptics, the venture succeeded. Thus, in 1896, was 
established the first basket and crate factory, not only in Cherokee 
County, but in the state. Buyers discovered that gum was the 
best material for the package. By 1897 Aber containers were 
being shipped as far as Denver, Colorado. Later the bushel 
basket was added to the four-basket crate and the peck box. With 
the substitution of lugs for the four-basket tomato crate, pine 
found a market. Before the depression the factory was annually 
shipping approximately three hundred cars of fruit and vegetable 
packages. 

About 1898, W. W. Slover established the second factory in 
connection with his sawmill at Turney. Northern capital was 
quick to see the opportunity for profit and the industry spread. 
In 1912, outside the prison walls at Rusk, the Penitentiary Com¬ 
mission established what was reported to be the largest box and 
crate factory in the state. It now operates as the Texas Basket 


90 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


and Crate Factory. Today fruit and vegetable crops from Wash¬ 
ington to Mississippi are harvested in Cherokee boxes, baskets 
and crates. Nine factories, some large, some small, are in opera¬ 
tion. In addition to the pioneer factory, long-time operators 
include P. T. Butler of Rusk, N. A. Slover of Dialville and the 
Alexander Factory at Jacksonville. 

The largest of the four state forests, which contains 2,360 
acres of short-leaf pine obtained from the Prison Board, is located 
near Maydelle. It is used to demonstrate the growing of timber 
as a crop for profit and for study of the effect of fires on forest 
growth. One of the CCC camps, established as a part of the 
National relief program, is located on it. 

OIL 

For more than three decades both local and outside capital have 
intermittently endeavored to discover Cherokee County’s big oil 
field. 

In 1901, Max R. and Ralph H. Orthwine, young men of St. 
Louis recently come into possession of a large inheritance, 
acquired an extensive acreage on both sides of the Angelina 
River and began drilling on the east bank about a mile below the 
mouth of Mud Creek. Artesian water appeared, the driller died 
and activities ceased before their Cherokee County leases were 
tested. The second effort was sponsored by Doctor A. H. McCord, 
J. S. Wightman, Wade B. Neely and other Rusk citizens. The 
well, located about half a mile east of Sulphur Springs, was 
abandoned at some sixteen hundred feet. J. F. Beall of Rusk, 
whose unwavering faith in the existence of oil in Cherokee 
County spanned four decades, together with other Rusk and 
Jacksonville citizens, promoted the next activity. A well was 
drilled two miles northeast of Summer field in 1914-15. Water 
broke in, their money gave out and the project proved futile. 

Alto staged the next activity. In 1919, local men, including 
Gus Rounsaville, F. F. Florence, H. H. Berryman, E. J. Hol¬ 
comb, E. M. Decker and W. T. Whiteman, organized the Chero¬ 
kee Oil and Gas Company. Largely through the efforts of W. H. 
Black, James I. Perkins, Jr., E. J. Holcomb and E. P. Palmer, 
they leased approximately 60,000 acres of land at an annual rental 
of ten cents per acre and let a drilling contract near Brunswick. 
Following this a number of wells were begun, a good showing 
at one time boosting leases to the unprecedented price of thirty 
dollars per acre, but inadequate financing, together with lack 
of proper machinery and the exact geologic knowledge of today, 


DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES 91 


proved an ever-present handicap. Woodbine sand was not yet 
the driller’s goal. 

With the coming of J. A. Colliton the history of Cherokee 
County oil development reads like fiction. Akin to the frontiers¬ 
man of old, driven by the challenging spirit of the true pioneer, 
“Jack” Colliton blazed a trail which led to the discovery of the 
vast East Texas oil fields and won for himself the title, “Father 
of East Texas Oil.” 

Here is his story, the story of a man able to “take things on the 
chin and smile.” 

In 1921, Colliton acquired an 18,584-acre block of northeast 
Cherokee County leases. Before drilling he sought to interest 
the major companies. Officials who were his friends sought to 
dissuade him; the venture was a waste of time and money. One 
company’s representative boldly offered to drink all the oil 
Cherokee County could produce. All ridiculed the idea of the 
existence of oil. Not an acre could he sell. Nothing daunted, 
he located a well on the Jo well survey. 

Modern wells have prosaic beginnings, but not so with the 
Colliton No. 1. Spudding in was a gala event for which, quoting 
the Troup Banner, “the whole countryside and several townsides 
turned out.” More than a thousand people were present. The 
Jacksonville Rotary Club sponsored the program and Jackson¬ 
ville stores closed for the occasion. Gus S. Blankenship, the 
Rotary president, was master of ceremonies. Oratory was inter¬ 
spersed by music from the Rusk College band. Advance publicity 
had brought representatives from the state dailies for copy. At 
last the big moment arrived. Amid lusty cheers, four of the most 
distinguished of Jacksonville’s pioneers—J. A. Templeton, W. A. 
Brown, J. H. Bolton and Wesley Love—afterward heralded in 
New York newspapers as the millionaire drilling crew, turned on 
the steam and sent the drill earthward. February 20, 1922, became 
a marked day. 

But Colliton faith was soon to have another test. The casing 
parted at twenty-six hundred feet and all efforts to correct 
it proved futile. The derrick was skidded and Colliton No. 2 
quietly spudded in. Some six months of ups and down led to the 
oil sand, December 5, 1923, but more difficulties delayed bringing 
in the well until the following March. Oil flowed over the derrick. 
In bottles, pails, jars and what-not, visitors carried it away for 
proud display. In the midst of such wild excitement the casing 
collapsed and the well had to be abandoned. 

A boulder fell against the casing of the third well and a fourth 


92 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


one was begun. By this time the Colliton resources were 
exhausted. An appeal to Colonel Humphreys of Mexia-Wortham 
fame led to the formation of the Colliton-Humphreys Company 
early in 1926. 

Work was resumed, but the drill stem twisted off at thirty- 
three hundred feet and the hole had to be abandoned. Still Jack 
Colliton clung to his faith. Moving over three hundred feet, the 
drill started again. Finally saturated oil sand was cored. Produc¬ 
tion seemed certain. Colonel Humphreys must have some of 
the thrill. The well was shut down to await his arrival from 
Denver. He wanted friends from West Virginia. At last the 
stage was set, but the chief actor failed to appear. Of gas pres¬ 
sure there was none. The oil refused to flow. 

Two more wells were drilled on the Ousley tract without pro¬ 
duction. First and last, Colliton and Humphreys lost over a mil¬ 
lion dollars in the Cherokee venture. In 1927, after selling his 
home and furniture to pay bills, Colliton drove out of Jackson¬ 
ville with exactly $37.50 in his pocket. The story is continued 
in his own words: 

‘Where now? East to Shreveport. West to Fort Worth. I don’t 
care which.” 

“Better spend the night in Fort Worth and think it over.” 

Thus the die was cast. Mrs. Colliton voted “West.” 

The next day they drove to Oklahoma City and the breaks 
started the other way. Putting over an advertising campaign, 
which secured the capital necessary to save a friend’s option 
in the Seminole field, brought him $15,000 in cash and again 
put Colliton in the oil game. Since 1928 he has continued to play 
it in California and Oklahoma City. 

Despite the loss of a fortune, the Colliton effort in Cherokee 
County was not in vain. Big companies became interested. 
Although lack of cash to meet the rental payments forced Colliton 
to drop his Boggy Creek leases, the Humble Company discovered 
the Carey Lake field. For weeks “Dad” Joiner of Rusk County 
discovery fame lived in the bunk-house where the Colliton wells 
were drilling. Enthusiasm was contagious; the East Texas field 
amazed the world. 

In addition to the Colliton and the Alto activities, Cherokee oil 
operations of the ’20s included the Olander test four miles east 
of Rusk, gaily begun with a big barbecue and abandoned because 
of exhausted resources, and the Magnolia test nine miles north¬ 
east of Rusk, to which salt water wrote finis. 

With Joiner’s discovery of the East Texas field, the major 


DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES 93 


companies again sought Cherokee leases and the ’30s ushered in 
a more extensive drilling campaign. Prior to June, 1934, seven¬ 
teen producing wells were drilled in the territory adjacent to the 
Rusk and Smith County lines, but wildcat deep tests in the Tecula, 
Maydelle, Alto and Box’s Creek sectors proved disappointing. 
Not until June 3, 1934, with the bringing in of a Woodbine sand 
producer, the Wood-Young New Birmingham Development Com¬ 
pany No. 1 on the Levi Jordan survey, did decades of wildcat 
faith have their reward. Until two salt water wells checked the 
mad buying there followed one of the greatest lease and royalty 
campaigns ever staged in Texas. The Wood-Young well brought 
the total number of Cherokee County producing wells to twenty- 
one. 

Aside from the benefits derived more directly from its oil 
wells, it may be noted that drilling for oil has revealed the exist¬ 
ence of coal deposits which will doubtless prove a future com¬ 
mercial asset and that seven pipe line companies have lines through 
the county materially increasing the county and school tax 
receipts. 


CHAPTER X 


Agricultural Development 

Cherokee County has been an influential factor in making 
the so-called East Texas diversification experiment a successful 
agricultural program on which fruit, berries, melons, tomatoes 
and other crops share the honors of cotton as cash crops, while 
corn and the grain sorghums are used for feed and forage. 

THE PEACH INDUSTRY 

Many of the first Cherokee settlers started peach orchards with 
trees left by the Indians. The earliest advertisements of Cherokee 
farms boost fine orchards as a selling point. Yet, had the Inter¬ 
national and Great Northern Railroad Company chosen a man 
of less vision as its Jacksonville agent in the ’70s, recognition 
of the fruit crop as a commercial asset might have been indefi¬ 
nitely postponed. Born a hustler, C. F. (Cul) Collins had not 
long been at his new station before he determined to pick up 
additional cash by shipping the plums, cherries, berries and peaches 
hitherto allowed to waste. Jacksonville boys were enlisted in the 
project, contacting the growers, gathering the fruit and bringing 
it to the shipper. Through such cooperation a thriving business 
was established. The next impetus came from the enthusiasm of 
R. W. (Yank) Smith, a clerk in the Ragsdale store, whose hobby 
was the development of new varieties of peaches. With marketing 
of fruit successfully demonstrated, orchard planting became a 
popular side line. 

Records for the ’80s show extensive express shipments, the 
Cherokee peach having already won distinction for its unusual 
flavor, said to be due to the iron in the soil. The fruit was first 
shipped in white pine buckets covered with cheese cloth. In 1889 
farmers reported 1,659 acres in peaches, valued at $29,265. 
Peach growing as a real commercial project, however, dates from 
1893, the year refrigerated cars first made possible carlot ship¬ 
ments. As a result of this successful season—Jacksonville being 
credited with shipping more fruit than any point in Texas— 
thousands of trees were planted. Orchard acreage continued to 

94 


AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 


95 


increase until the county’s peach shipments reached their peak 
with 1,204 cars in 1912. 

After its signal initial success the Cherokee peach industry, 
however, struck a snag. Inexperienced orchardists had over¬ 
planted, often on soil and surfaces not suited to their purposes. 
Lack of knowledge concerning control of early blooming and 
the use of the smudge pot resulted in the loss of crops when 
weather conditions were unfavorable. The appearance of the San 
Jose scale and other insect pests demanded scientific care of the 
orchards. The expense of spraying added to the difficulty of 
securing intelligent labor, together with marketing troubles, led 
large numbers of early orchardists to turn back to “reliable 
cotton.” 

Among local promoters of the peach industry, either as growers 
or shippers, were J. S. (Jake) and Wesley Love (no relation), 
James G. Boles, S. Z. Alexander, C. D. Jarratt, A. Y. Shoemaker, 
H. L. Hodge, O. D. Jones, C. H. Richmond, F. B. Guinn, J. E. 
Bagley, E. C. Dickinson and Doctor A. H. McCord. Investments 
in the peach industry also included much out-of-state capital. 

The largest and most widely known orchard was established 
by the noted Michigan peach-grower, Roland Morrill. Observa¬ 
tion of the superiority of the flavor and color of the Cherokee 
peach which competed with his Michigan fruit on the Chicago 
markets brought Morrill to Texas. The Morrill Orchard Com¬ 
pany, organized in 1902, acquired 12,500 acres of land in the 
southern part of Cherokee County, built its own town, Morrill, 
and a railroad connecting its acreage, planted 1,400 acres in 
peaches and began early vegetable farming on a wholesale scale. 
After spending some $300,000 in the development of their project 
the stockholders grew dissatisfied with the returns. The company 
finally went into the hands of a receiver and Roland Morrill 
returned to Michigan, where he died in 1923. George C. Davis 
of Chicago purchased the majority of the Morrill holdings and 
Gerald Fitzgerald became director of his agricultural projects. 1 

The present decade has marked a revival of interest in or¬ 
chards. The live-at-home slogan, together with a better knowl¬ 
edge of insect and disease control, has resulted in a significant 
increase in peach acreage. 

THE TOMATO INDUSTRY 

In the beginning only a small wrinkled relative of the poisonous 

1 In 1902 the Model Farm of the Cotton Belt, with its station at Brunswick, 
was established on land purchased from the Morrill Company. 



96 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


nightshade family, an outcast from the realm of food. Next a 
garden ornament with the romantic name of love-apple. Finally an 
article of commerce shipped by trainloads to supply its uni¬ 
versally advertised vitamins to waiting millions. Such are the 
major divisions in the life story of the tomato, now one of 
Cherokee County’s ranking industries. 

Brought from Peru by 16th century Spanish explorers and 
later scientifically developed by American plant breeders, the 
tomato made its real commercial debut just in time to afford the 
exponents of diversified East Texas farming another crop. Chero¬ 
kee County became the pioneer Texas tomato field. 

The origin of the Cherokee County tomato industry is linked 
with the success of its peach industry. Car lot shipments of 
peaches brought American Refrigeration Transit Company of¬ 
ficials to Jacksonville. Finding soil and climate similar to that of 
Crystal Springs, Mississippi, the tomato center with which they 
were familiar, they urged Jacksonville farmers to capitalize their 
experience in peach shipping and enter the tomato business. 

Before their tomato propaganda had visible results, however, 
two Cherokee brothers-in-law, C. D. Jarratt and W. R. Stout, 
employed in the Cotton Belt Railroad offices at Tyler, made the 
acquaintance of an ex-Mississippian growing tomatoes on a small 
scale for express shipments. Amazed by his season’s returns in 
1896, the railroad men determined to sell the tomato deal to their 
home-folks. Week-end after week-end found them in Craft, the 
little Cherokee County community where the Jarratt family 
owned land. Eloquently they pictured to relatives and friends 
the new road to wealth. In the end a few caught the vision, agreed 
to risk some forty acres and prepared to plant the first car lot crop 
of Texas tomatoes. 

Thus a little band of Craft men—R. B. Jarratt, S. H. Jarratt, 
A. L. Dover, C. A. Walker, W. N. Goodson, Joe Sharp and Tom 
Taylor—dared to blaze a new trail. In the face of being criticized 
as fools for planting tomatoes for money, despite the handicaps 
of inexperience, they laid the foundation for an industry which 
has had an almost phenomenal development reaching far beyond 
East Texas. 

Although they financed two of the crops, C. D. Jarratt and 
W. R. Stout continued their work in Tyler during the first 
growing season. When the tomatoes were ready for market Jar¬ 
ratt took the first car to St. Louis. Thus began the long career, 
both as buyer and grower, which won for him the title, “Father 
of the East Texas Tomato.” 


AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 


97 


On May 27, 1897, S. H. Jarratt packed the first crate for a 
Palestine hotel. 2 On June 14 the first car was loaded, two days 
being required to complete the job. And what a car! Pops, cat- 
faces, scars and blisters! All the culls now barred by the in¬ 
spector’s eagle-eye went in with the choice fruit. Fortunately 
for those amateur shippers the market of 1897 was not glutted. 
Some six or seven cars constituted Craft’s season shipment. 

The entire county awaited returns. Two hundred and fifty dol¬ 
lars for one acre of tomatoes and that at a season when the old- 
time agricultural system yielded not a penny. Farm land was 
valued at $5 to $10 per acre. Cotton was bringing five cents per 
pound. No wonder skeptical neighbors who had jeered at the 
“fool tomato venture” longed for a share in the gold mine. Not 
surprising that some gins failed to run in 1898. 

Community after community joined the ranks of the tomato- 
growers. A decade later, June 10, 1907, Jacksonville alone shipped 
forty-two cars in one day. Two decades later, 1917, Jacksonville 
was the center of a circle with an eight-mile radius producing 
ninety per cent of all the tomatoes shipped from Texas. Despite 
the extension of acreage in East Texas, Southwest Texas and 
the Rio Grande Valley, Cherokee County is still recognized as the 
center of the state's tomato industry. 

Lack of space makes reference to individuals who have played 
significant roles in the Cherokee tomato drama necessarily brief. 
Almost contemporaneously with the Craft venture, Frank B. 
Guinn, of Rusk (a lawyer by profession and a horticulturist by 
avocation), who had long visioned the development of East Texas 
through the promotion of the vegetable industry, began an in¬ 
tensive study of tomato culture and tomato markets. His "tomato 
schools” gave signal impetus to the industry. Through the columns 
of his newspapers J. E. McFarland of Jacksonville has rendered 
invaluable assistance in promoting the spread of the tomato area. 
A. Y. Shoemaker was one of the veteran directors of the ship¬ 
ping end of the tomato deal. 

Tomatoes were first shipped pink, in four-basket crates, packed 
at home. With the extension of acreage, increased tonnage, more 
distant markets and the development of better artificial ripening 
processes, the marketing system has changed to the present shed- 
packed "green deal,” eliminating the cost of refrigeration. F. J. 
Sackett was the pioneer promoter of the "green deal.” Cash track 

2 H. L. Carlton and S. R. McKee of Mount Selman and doubtless others 
grew tomatoes for express shipments in 1897. 



98 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


sales have also replaced the early practice of sending a man to 
represent the shippers' interests in commission house sales. 

In 1934, the one hundredth anniversary of the use of the tomato 
as food, the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce conceived the 
idea of making the United States more tomato-minded through 
the observance of a National Tomato Week, June 3-9. The nation¬ 
wide celebration reached its zenith in the colorful coronation 
pageant, Spirit of the Tomato, staged June 4 as a part of the 
Jacksonville Tomato Festival. Attended by twenty-two princesses 
from towns in the tomato-growing area, Miss Billye Sue Hackney, 
of Jacksonville, was crowned the first tomato queen of the United 
States. Cherokee County princesses included Gene Gregg of Rusk, 
Helen Shattuck of Alto and Mary L. Stark of Gallatin. 

Despite its singularly romantic development and the excessive 
profits sometimes made by individuals, the tomato deal is always 
a risk for the grower. Unfavorable weather conditions, insects 
and plant diseases frequently take heavy toll. Today overproduc¬ 
tion is at the root of its ills. The United States and Canada will 
consume just so many carloads. When more tomatoes than this 
are produced the growers inevitably suffer. Faced with a ruinous 
half-cent-per-pound market in the 1934 season, East Texas 
growers sought the cooperation of Mississippi in a concerted 
effort to force higher prices through a tomato strike. The move¬ 
ment, for the most part peaceable, proved futile and the tomatoes 
were left to rot in the fields. Yet through the lean years and the 
fat the true tomato man plants again, always hoping to win in 
the long run. 

THE MELON INDUSTRY 

The watermelon is another product of Cherokee soil which has 
helped to make the county’s agricultural reputation enviable. 
Carlot shipments began at Morrill in 1902. Six years later 
Morrill growers shipped seventy-two cars. The county's banner 
record is one hundred and sixty-five acres of melons on one farm. 
The largest yield per acre has been two thousand melons. The 
champion mdon weighed one hundred and eight pounds. Two 
Cherokee County farmers, J. Palmer Schochler and L. B. 
Russell, have gained national distinction as melon breeders, the 
Schochler and Russell melon seed being sold throughout the 
United States. 

Saving thousands of pounds of seed a season is no small task. 
Since a very irate negro woman tried to fulfill her contract to 
save the seed on a ten-acre Schochler melon patch by raking them 


AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 


99 


out with a spoon and abandoned the job as hopeless, a new process 
has been adopted. In preparation for a cutting day the perfect 
melons are pulled and left to overripen in order that the seed may 
be more easily separated from the pulp. When some thousand 
are thus collected the cutting begins. Halves, minus the hearts, 
are placed in a large trough where workers, using as a rule only 
two strokes to a half, rake out the seed, which pass from the 
trough to a sand screen where the pulp is removed. After being 
thoroughly cleaned, they are left to dry in the shade. Thus five 
girls may save four hundred pounds of seed a day. 

COTTON 

High prices after the Civil War led to a tremendous increase 
in cotton acreage at the expense of wheat and other crops. In 
1874 the East Texas Immigration Journal reported Cherokee 
County producing an annual average of approximately 10,000 
bales of cotton. According to the New Birmingham Times, 8,283 
bales were grown on 39,745 acres in 1888. Evidently either adver¬ 
tising zeal had led the Journal to undue boasting or 1888 had 
brought adverse weather conditions. 

By 1892 Cherokee County papers were voicing the appeal of 
Texas bankers for cotton acreage reduction. With middling cot¬ 
ton in Galveston and New Orleans quoted at cents per pound, 
reduction was declared the only hope of higher price. Captain 
W. H. Lovelady and John Montgomery went to Austin to attend 
a state meeting of cotton-growers called to consider the propo¬ 
sition. Statistics for the next year, however, show an increased 
production. 

Acreage continued to increase until the United States govern¬ 
ment took the matter in hand. In 1933 County Agent W. H. 
Washington, C. S. Ousley of Craft, E. P. Palmer of Alto and 
T. A. Sherman of Rusk were appointed as the Cherokee County 
committee in charge of the famous cotton-plow-up campaign. 
Cherokee farmers signed 2,120 plow-up contracts, which brought 
them approximately $240,000 in benefit and option payments. 
Continuing to support the Roosevelt program for 1934-35 cotton 
acreage reduction, Cherokee growers signed 2,680 contracts, in¬ 
volving $166,768 in rental payments and a minimum of $47,680 
in parity payments. 

THE GRANGE 

During the ’70s and ’80s Cherokee County was a stronghold 
for the Grange, a national organization officially known as the 


100 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Patrons of Husbandry, which sought to effect an agricultural 
regeneration by rescuing the farmer from the ruinous credit and 
one-crop system prevailing after the Civil War. The first county 
grange was organized at Social Chapel on Box’s Creek in 1874. 
John B. Long, a charter member, became a state as well as a 
county grange leader. In 1891 he was Master of the Texas 
Grange. J. M. B. McKnight was for a time president of the 
county organization. John Anderson and John J. Felps were also 
ardent grange workers. Local granges established cooperative 
business enterprises which at first proved profitable. The Alto 
Cooperative Association of the Patrons of Husbandry, chartered 
in 1882, is doubtless typical. It opened with a capital of four hun¬ 
dred dollars and began selling family groceries. Two years later 
it was handling general merchandise and had a paid-in capital 
of $4,180. 

In later years the Farmers’ Alliance and the Farmers’ Union 
sought agricultural advancement. 

NURSERIES 

For more than sixty years the nursery business has been a 
growing Cherokee industry. Larissa was its first center. In 1880 
Yoakum & Company, a firm established by Doctor F. L. Yoakum, 
former president of Larissa College, advertised the largest nursery 
stock ever offered in the South. George A. Long was another 
Larissa pioneer. S. Z. Alexander established a nursery at Mt. 
Selman in 1893. 

In 1878 Reverend N. A. Davis, a Presbyterian minister who 
had been engaged in the nursery business at Rusk, established the 
first Jacksonville nursery, near the present A. K. Dixon home. 
As an employee in the Davis nursery Wesley Love, afterward 
owner of a five-hundred acre orchard, took his first lessons in 
peach culture. 

The S. R. McKee nursery of Jacksonville is the oldest of the 
present nurseries, tracing its descent from the Yoakum Company. 

ROSE AND PLANT FARMS 

In recent years commercial rose growing has become an im¬ 
portant industry in the Jacksonville territory. The first carlot 
shipment was made by the Clarke Rose Nursery to Manchester, 
Connecticut, in 1928. Express shipments are billed to stations 
ranging from the state of Washington to the Carolinas. With 
a reasonable season Jacksonville growers can produce 500,000 
rose plants, representing some $35,000 income. A sixteen-acre 







I 




Honorable John B. Long Richard B. Reagan 


























































. 



































































♦ 










































































AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 


101 


rose field, with sixty varieties of blooming roses, merits the poet’s 
description, “a thing of beauty and a joy forever.” 

During the past decade plant farms have also proved sources 
of profit. Cherokee tomato, pepper, onion, egg-plant, cauliflower, 
cabbage and other plants are marketed by express and parcel 
post, not only throughout the United States but in Canada and 
Cuba. At the peak of the season mail cars often prove too small 
for the daily consignments. In 1933 approximately one hundred 
million plants were shipped from Jacksonville; one Ponta farm 
reported business totaling $20,000. These are the chief shipping 
centers. 


COUNTY AND HOME DEMONSTRATION AGENTS 

In 1909, H. W. Acker was appointed special agent for farm 
demonstration work. In 1916, Frank B. Phillips became the first 
county agent. Until the commissioners court assumed the obliga¬ 
tion, the agent’s salary was paid by the Jacksonville Chamber 
of Commerce. H. L. Clyburn is the 1934 agent. In 1929, Miss 
Irene Price, the present home demonstration agent, began work. 
The inauguration of this service for Cherokee farm women has 
proved invaluable during the recent years of economic disaster, 
not only in the production and conservation of food but in giving 
rural women and girls a happier existence. 

In 1922, largely through the efforts of Mrs. A. G. Adams 
of Jacksonville, the negro women were given an opportunity for 
improvement in living conditions. Mrs. Adams became personally 
responsible for raising the two hundred dollars annually necessary 
to supplement the state’s apportionment and maintain a negro 
home demonstration agent. Although in recent years the Negro 
County Council has raised this fund, Mrs. Adam’s continued 
encouragement has contributed much to the success of the work. 
Since the beginning, Lula B. Ragsdale has been agent. Improved 
kitchens, home and yard beautification contests, garden, poultry, 
canning, balanced diet, rug and various other projects have 
resulted in marked advancement among club members. For twelve 
years J. C. Bradford, negro county agent, has successfully 
directed a program of economic development among the men 
and boys of his race. 

THE CHEROKEE COUNTY FAIR AND COLT SHOW 

Interest in agricultural advancement has been mirrored in 
public exhibits. In 1893, largely through the efforts of John B. 
Long, General John M. Claiborne, John B. Reagan, Joe D. Baker, 


104 A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


For Peyton Irving, the principal and founder of the school, 
surviving students have a respect almost akin to reverence. Emi¬ 
grating from Virginia in 1856, Professor Irving opened a school 
at Lynn Flat in Nacogdoches County. Leaving the schoolroom 
for the army, he became an orderly of General Albert Sydney 
Johnston. After the battle of Shiloh, ill health forced his retire¬ 
ment from Confederate service. When his strength permitted it, 
he again taught at Lynn Flat until Doctor J. M. Noell invited 
him to open a school at Alto. Here he brought his bride, Miss 
Emily Massey, in 1864. In 1865 he moved to Rusk where he 
directed the Cherokee High School until he accepted a position 
on the Masonic Institute faculty. Later he taught in Galveston, 
Ladonia and Cleburne. Death came at Cleburne in 1923. His son, 
Peyton, Jr., was for many years prominently connected with the 
State Department of Education. 

RUSK MASONIC INSTITUTE 

In accordance with the Masonic policy of promoting educational 
interests, Rusk local organizations provided Cherokee County 
with its chief school in the ’70s and ’80s. 

In 1869 a group of citizens had organized the Rusk Educational 
Association and purchased land on which they expected to build 
a school. After two years of effort, hampered by inadequate 
resources, the association sold its claims to the Euclid Lodge No. 
45 and the Cherokee Chapter No. 11, Royal Arch Masons. The 
Masons erected a two-story colonial building on Henderson 
Street, the present site of the grammar school, and opened the 
Rusk Masonic Institute, with ninety-six students in attendance. 
On March 14, 1873, it was granted a state charter with the 
following board of trustees: R. H. Guinn, C. C. Francis, J. T. 
Wiggins, J. J. Mallard, Thomas E. Hogg, T. L. Philleo and 
M. H. Bonner. 

The first R. M. I. faculty consisted of four members: John 
Joss, superintendent and principal of the male department; Peyton 
Irving, principal of the female department; Mrs. R. E. Shanks, 
principal of the primary department; Miss Harriet Mitchell, music 
teacher. Among the higher subjects listed on an old report card 
are trigonometry, surveying, natural philosophy, logic, chemistry, 
Latin, Greek and bookkeeping. Students were graded on politeness. 

Professor John Joss, a graduate of the University of Aberdeen, 
Scotland, was not only the first but also the most famous of 
Masonic Institute superintendents. According to his students, he 
could quote ten thousand lines from Homer’s Iliad and Vergil’s 


EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 


105 


JEneid. The study of logarithms he considered excellent holiday 
sport. In 1874 he moved to Galveston. Afterward he returned 
to the Institute as professor of natural science and foreign lan¬ 
guages, in which capacity he was serving when the school was 
sold. Many Galveston boys followed him to Rusk. The esteem 
in which he was held is further revealed by the dedication of 
Thomas E. Hogg’s poems: “To Professor John Joss as a testi¬ 
monial of my gratitude for acts of kindness done me as well as 
my appreciation of his high attainments as a scholar and his 
intrinsic worth as a gentleman.” 

Among later superintendents were John A. Boone, Winfield 
M. Rivers, R. E. Hendry, J. D. Nevins, W. F. Cole and B. A. 
Stafford. Other faculty members included Robert McEachern, the 
blind poet-musician, J. W. Phifer, Mrs. M. A. Rogers, Mrs. M. 
Blasingame, Miss Kate Fairiss, Miss Lula Guinn and Miss Laura 
Philleo. The student body included boarding students from 
various parts of the state. Tom Campbell, future governor, was 
enrolled in 1873. 

In 1888, because of financial difficulties, the Grand Chapter 
of Texas granted the local lodge permission to sell the property 
and pay the outstanding indebtedness. In December, 1889, it was 
purchased by the Rusk free school district, the Institute having 
for some years been partially supported by public school funds. 
The Masons donated half the purchase price. 

JACKSONVILLE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE 

The Jacksonville Collegiate Institute was another private school 
whose influence still lives in the achievements of men inspired 
by its great-souled founder, John J. A. Patton. 

Professor Patton, the son of a Georgia Presbyterian minister, 
moved to Texas with his bride, Miss Margaret E. Thomason of 
Mobile, Alabama, in the late ’50s. He taught until the Civil War 
called him to arms. After the war he returned to the schoolroom. 
At one time he was president of the Andrew Female College at 
Huntsville. He was superintendent of the Temple schools when 
he died in 1885. J. L. Brown of Jacksonville pays his former 
teacher the following tribute: 

“Professor Patton was the Robert E. Lee type of gentleman. 
His strong personality dominated and inspired his pupils. His 
work endures in the religious, commercial and educational life 
of Jacksonville to the present day.” 1 


1 Ford and Brown: Larissa, p. 181. 



102 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


R. A. Barrett, W. F. Thompson, Eugene Dorough and F. B. 
Guinn, a fair association was organized with Colonel T. L. 
Fariss as president. After being held at Rusk for some years 
it was discontinued. Afterward a fair was held at Jacksonville. 
The present fair association, with its buildings at the county 
seat, was organized in 1931. 

One of the popular features of the first fair was a contest 
staged by the Rusk Rifles. Walter B. Whitman, afterward editor 
of Holland's Magazine and now on the staff of the New York 
San, was the captain of this widely-known military organization, 
which was a predecessor of the Iron Guards and the present Com¬ 
pany A, of the Texas National Guards. 

About 1908 the Cherokee County Colt Show held its first exhi¬ 
bition at Rusk. For a number of years its annual live stock, 
agricultural, horticultural, needlecraft and culinary exhibits, in 
which communities enthusiastically contested, attracted attention 
throughout East Texas. Newspapers reported ten thousand people 
in attendance. In 1911 the parade was more than a mile long. 

TERRACING 

Cherokee County numbers among its citizens the “Father of 
Texas Terracing,” T. G. Simpson of Gallatin. Through the 
example of his pioneer work in this field of conservation, thou¬ 
sands of acres of Texas soil have been saved. 

After ten years of regretful observation of the wasteful wash¬ 
ing of his own farm, Simpson thought of terraces. Armed with 
a cumbersome terracing level of his own construction and assisted 
by a skeptical son, he began the initial test on a five-acre tract 
in 1895. 

Neighbors jeered at the idea. Even his own family tried to 
stop him. The first year he didn’t make the seed he sowed, but 
for six years he stuck to his program of crop rotation. The 
seventh year he gathered six bales of cotton from the five acres, 
in the beginning too poor to grow peas. 

Jeers turned to compliments. Skeptical neighbors sought assist¬ 
ance. Since 1896 Simpson has terraced over thirty thousand acres 
of East Texas farm land. 

In recent years terracing schools held by the county agents 
have promoted the conservation of Cherokee soil. 


CHAPTER XI 


Educational Progress and Social Changes 

With the close of the Civil War and the subsequent return 
to more normal living conditions, the education of Cherokee 
children again became a matter of public concern. In addition to 
the development of a free school system the latter half of the 
19th century witnessed the establishment of a number of other 
schools which left an indelible imprint on the lives of Cherokee 
citizens. 

THE CHEROKEE HIGH SCHOOL 

The earliest of these post-war schools, known as the Cherokee 
High School, was established in Rusk in 1865 by Peyton Irving. 
It was first located in a two-story building on the corner south 
of the present fire station, but was afterward moved to the 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The following extract from 
an advertisement of its opening, January 6, 1868, is a sidelight 
on its work: 

“The session lasts 24 weeks. Strict discipline will be enforced. 
Orthography, reading and writing, $18; arithmetic, grammar, 
geography and history, $27; logic, rhetoric, natural philosophy, 
physics and chemistry, $36; classics, higher mathematics, moral 
and mental philosophy, $45. Half tuition must be paid in advance. 
Board at reasonable rates in the best families/’ 

Incredible as it seems, the program for the annual exhibition 
in 1870 included seventy-three numbers, grouped under the 
following alternating heads: music, declamations, literary gems, 
select essays, original essays, select orations and original orations. 
James Stephen Hogg appeared in a musical number. The audience 
came in the morning, brought lunch and remained for an after¬ 
noon and evening session. All exhibition programs had a com¬ 
mittee on order, composed of leading citizens. 

Among Cherokee High School faculty members were C. J. 
Harris, who is remembered chiefly for his readiness to inflict 
corporal punishment on girls, and Mrs. A. S. Sturdevant, mother 
of I. L. Sturdevant, president of the Stone Fort National Bank 
at Nacogdoches. 


103 


106 A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


The Collegiate Institute opened in 1873 near the site of the 
present Methodist Church, Lots 3-5, Block 167. A year later, 
despite high tuition, its enrollment had passed the hundred mark. 
Until Professor Patton again yielded to his love of change and 
moved to Marlin in 1878, his efficiency as a teacher and his 
dignity as a man continued to draw students from a wide area. 
R. E. Hendry succeeded him. In the ’80s the building was used 
for a public school. Professor A. D. Davies was principal. 

Among surviving Collegiate Institute students are John H. 
Bolton, Reverend B. R. Bolton, W. C. Bolton, A. N. Ragsdale, 
Doctor Frank A. Fuller and Reverend S. M. Templeton (of 
Rockwall). 

LONE STAR INSTITUTE 

Lone Star Institute, located in the village of the same name, 
also owes its prominence to the personality of its founder. In 
1889 Colonel T. A. Cocke opened the school, with Reverend A. M. 
Stewart as co-principal. During the next four years the number 
of boarding students steadily increased and many families in 
larger towns moved to Lone Star to send their children to the 
Institute. 

Colonel Cocke, a native of Kentucky and a graduate of the 
University of Mississippi, coming to Texas to recuperate his 
health and fortune lost in the Civil War, found a new field of 
service. For nearly fifty years, in some half dozen communities, 
his high ideals and his thoroughness as a teacher contributed 
largely to the successful career of many a Cherokee citizen. Quick 
to vision the possibilities of a boy, he gave himself unstintedly 
in school hours and out, to the task of his development. Mrs. 
Cocke, who taught with her husband for seventeen years, still 
lives in Jacksonville where Colonel Cocke died in 1914. 

RUSK COLLEGE 

Rusk College, a Baptist school existing for some thirty years, 
was opened under another name by means of funds subscribed 
for a school of another denomination. 

In 1893 the committee appointed by the Methodist Conference 
to select a new site for the Methodist school, then located at 
Kilgore, rejected Rusk’s offer of $10,000 for the construction 
of new buildings in the Cherokee county seat. Since the money 
had been pledged and the town sold on the idea of Christian educa¬ 
tion, local Methodist leaders invited the Baptists to sponsor the 
desired church school. The Cherokee Baptist Association secured 


EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 


107 


a charter for the East Texas Baptist Institute. Mrs. Georgiana 
Bonner donated a site, a brick building was erected and school 
opened in September, 1895, with Reverend J. H. Richardson of 
Tennessee as president. To the vision, faith and persistent effort 
of Reverend J. H. Thorn, pastor of the Rusk Baptist Church, 
was largely due the institution’s initial success. After becoming 
a part of the Baptist correlated school system, the name was 
changed to the Academy of Industrial Arts, a school for girls, 
in 1907, Rusk Academy in 1916, and Rusk College in 1918. Ten 
years later, because of lack of money, because of the oversupply 
of junior colleges in its territory, and because the Baptist system 
included too many schools of its type, its doors were closed. 

Doctor A. J. Armstrong of Baylor-Browning fame was once 
a faculty member. Among its presidents, in Institute and Academy 
days, were two Rusk citizens, the late B. W. Vining and Charles 
H. Thompson, who still lives near Rusk. James M. Cook was the 
first College president. 

LON MORRIS COLLEGE 

Outstanding in Jacksonville’s skyline are the twin towers of 
Lon Morris College. In 1873 Reverend Isaac Alexander opened 
a private school in Kilgore. Two years later it passed under the 
control of the East Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church South. In 1886 it was chartered as Alexander Institute. 
Demand for a more central location in a more populous town led 
to removal of the school to Jacksonville in 1894. Its name was 
changed first to Alexander Collegiate Institute, then Alexander 
College and finally, in 1923, to Lon Morris College, in honor 
of the man who endowed it, Reverend R. A. (Lon) Morris of 
Pittsburg, Texas. 

Doctor Alexander served as president until 1890. His successors 
include G. J. Nunn, E. R. Williams, W. K. Strother, F. E. Butler, 
John M. Barcus, J. B. Turrentine, M. L. Lefler, Roy G. Boger, 
J. F. Winfield, E. M. Staunton and Reverend H. T. Morgan, who 
now holds the office. The college plant has grown from one to 
eight buildings. In 1934 J. C. Beard is president of the board 
of trustees. 


JACKSONVILLE COLLEGE 

In 1899 the East Texas Educational Society chose Jacksonville 
as the site for its proposed school. Jacksonville College was 
chartered and opened its doors in September. Until the present 
three-story administration building could be completed, classes 


108 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


were conducted in the Templeton building on South Bolton Street. 
Reverend J. V. Vermillion was the first president. B. J. Albritton 
and Miss Emma Long constituted the first graduating class. 
Beginning in 1904 the former served five years as president. 
In 1918 he returned to the presidency, which office he has since 
held continuously. Other presidents include Reverend J. M. New- 
burn, D. C. Dove and J. W. Hoppie. Collins Hall, a dormitory 
for girls, and a modern gymnasium are recent major improve¬ 
ments, the college plant now being valued at $125,000. Reverend 
Morris A. Roberts, pastor of the Jacksonville First Baptist 
Church, is president of the 1934 board of trustees. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

The three decades 1870-1900 witnessed the beginning of the 
forward movement in educational affairs which has characterized 
Cherokee County’s 20th century public school policy. 

In 1871 the commissioners court ordered that the one-fourth 
of one per cent direct ad valorem tax on all personal and real 
property authorized by the legislature be collected for the purpose 
of building schoolhouses in Cherokee County. This, supplemented 
by the legislative act of 1876 permitting the use of state school 
funds for building purposes, provided a community furnished 
the site and shared the expense of construction, led to the rapid 
erection of substantial school buildings. The next milestone in the 
development of the Cherokee County school system was the 
voting of local school taxes authorized by the law of 1883. 

In 1882 the commissioners court sold the four leagues of 
school land in Clay and Wichita counties, reserved for Cherokee 
County in accordance with the legislative act of 1850. Only 
$22,000 was realized from this sale. 

In 1893, through the vision of Judge F. B. Guinn, ex officio 
county superintendent, Cherokee County led the state in the 
adoption of a uniform system of textbooks. Observation of the 
success of the Cherokee plan hastened the establishment of a 
similar state-wide system. 

Outstanding 20th century advancement includes the establish¬ 
ment of ten independent school districts—Jacksonville, Rusk, 
Mt. Selman, Blackjack, Summerfield, Gallatin, Dialville, Alto, 
Wells and Maydelle, the creation of the office of county superin¬ 
tendent in 1907, the establishment of a county school board, the 
raising of the maximum school tax to one dollar, the establish¬ 
ment of standard high schools and the organization of the Inter¬ 
scholastic League Meet. 


EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 


109 


In 1934 County Superintendent E. S. Erwin reported the 
county had 12,171 scholastics, cared for in ninety-one public 
schools with an average term of seven months. Nineteen school 
buses transported 994 children to seventeen consolidated schools. 
Only thirteen one-teacher schools existed, all of which were 
colored. Only two districts retained the minimum tax rate of 
fifty cents. 

Although not strictly connected with public school work, 4-H 
clubs and Boy Scout troops, whose membership is made up of 
public school students, have promoted education outside the 
schoolroom. 


ADULT EDUCATION 

Typical of the adult literary organizations which flourished in 
the ’80s was the Rusk organization with the classical name, 
“Euclian Society,” composed of some of the most influential 
men and women of the town. 

From a printed defense against the charge that the society was 
attempting to establish a social aristocracy one learns that it 
originated in a desire to escape the two extremes of social life, 
the dance and the “sociable,” neither of which benefited the par¬ 
ticipants. “Sociables,” according to the Euclian writer, were 
often made half ridiculous by grown young ladies and gentlemen 
engaging in children’s games or the most commonplace topics of 
conversation just to pass the evening. 

Until increased membership made “the parlors of the town” 
too small, the Euclians met each Monday evening in the home 
of a member. Debates, essays, music and readings afforded a 
varied program. In 1886 they were rejoicing over the acquisition 
of a hall which not only supplied more room but a place where 
those on the program might practice their parts. 

Whether due to pressure of business or some other cause, 
membership in literary organizations of today seems limited to 
the women of Cherokee County. The oldest literary club is the 
Library Study Club of Rusk, organized as the Bachelor Girls 
Library Club, October 4, 1902. Mrs. A. S. Moore is its 1934 
president. Two years later Jacksonville ladies organized the 
Shakespeare Club, with Mrs. Alfred Fontaine Kerr as president. 
Mrs. T. E. Acker now holds this office. 

The Parent-Teacher associations, active in many rural com¬ 
munities as well as in the towns, have largely contributed to adult 
education in the past decade. Since 1932 Cherokee County has 
had one of the few East Texas county councils of Parent-Teacher 


110 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


associations. Mrs. Larue Cox of Jacksonville was the first pres¬ 
ident. Mrs. L. L. Rogers of the Central High community now 
holds the office. 


CHEROKEE AUTHORS 

Among Texas authors one finds a number of Cherokeeans. 
In 1872 Thomas E. Hogg, the oldest brother of Governor Hogg, 
published a volume of poems entitled, “The Fate of Marvin and 
Other Poems/’ the title poem being a war story. After the Civil 
War, in which he had served as a captain, Thomas Hogg practiced 
law in Rusk. Later he continued his law practice in Denton where, 
for a time, he also edited the Denton Review. He died in Denton 
in 1880. 

In 1878 Robert McEachern (McCann) sent to press “Youthful 
Days and Other Poems,” a collection of his pictures of Cherokee 
life. The scrapbooks of many Cherokee citizens contain copies of 
McEachern poems clipped from various publications. “Bobbie” 
McEachern, as he was known to his host of friends, was reared 
in Rusk. Despite his blindness, he was not only a poet but a 
talented musician. As a teacher of music he was largely responsible 
for making Rusk young people musically-minded. 

In 1885, Reverend S. C. Alexander, then a Rusk Presbyterian 
minister, published “The Stone Kingdom; or, The United States 
and America as Seen by the Prophets,” in which he undertook 
to show that the Bible foretold why America was not discovered 
earlier; that Spain would discover it: that it would be set up in 
thirteen states and would extend from ocean to ocean. 

“Margaret Ballantine; or, The Fall of the Alamo,” published 
in 1907 by Frank Templeton, is a novel “founded upon facts, em¬ 
bellished with beautiful scintillations of poetry, wit and pathos, 
evidencing a mind replete with knowledge of the early days of the 
Texas Republic.” Thus a fellow-soldier paid tribute to his com¬ 
rade’s work. After serving the Confederacy, Frank Templeton 
practiced law and was elected Cherokee County representative in 
the 17th Legislature. He died soon after his novel was published. 

In 1908, S. B. Barron published “The Lone Star Defenders,” 
a graphic history of the first Cherokee County company to enter 
Confederate service. Barron was admitted to the bar at the out¬ 
break of the Civil War. After his return he served his county 
both as clerk and as judge. He died in February, 1912, while 
en route to Palestine for treatment. 

While a citizen of Rusk, S. A. Willson wrote his famous 
“Criminal Forms.” According to F. B. Guinn, this book has done 







Samuel A. Willson Frank B. Guinn 










































































































































































































































EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 


111 


more to aid in law enforcement than any other ten books ever 
written in Texas. 2 

In 1930, J. L. Brown of Jacksonville published “Larissa,” a 
valuable collection of source material dealing chiefly with the 
historic town and college bearing the same name. Mr. Brown is 
a recognized authority on local history, the collection of historical 
data having long been his hobby. Reverend Fred H. Ford, for¬ 
merly pastor of the Jacksonville Presbyterian Church, was a col¬ 
laborator in the volume on Larissa. 

For lack of a more appropriate place, mention is here made of 
the “History of Cherokee County” read at the Fourth of July 
celebration in Rusk in 1876. President Grant had requested the 
citizens of every county in the United States to assemble at their 
county seats, with the oldest inhabitants as honor guests, and 
collect all available information concerning local history. From 
this data, which was to be forwarded to the Congressional 
librarian, a “Centennial History of the United States” was to 
be compiled. So few counties complied with the request that the 
history was never written, but Cherokee County did her part. 
S. A. Willson, W. T. Long, Asa Dossett, R. H. Guinn, Andrew 
Jackson, E. B. and W. J. Ragsdale collected the material for her 
contribution. 

SOCIAL CHANGES 

Copies of the newspapers of the ’80s reveal interesting bits 
of social life. Croquet was in great favor. Pitching dollars was 
a masculine sport gaining editorial comment. Picnics, Sunday 
school and otherwise, were popular summer diversions. Chaly¬ 
beate Springs, some three miles east of Rusk, was a favorite 
picnic ground. According to enthusiastic visitors, the scenery 
rivaled Colorado. Fishing parties frequently made the social 
column. De Bonnaire’s trapeze and gymnastic performers were 
always greeted by a large audience. 

The day of electrically decorated living-room trees was not yet. 
The celebration of Christmas with a public tree on Christmas 
Eve, a practice begun in Jacksonville in 1874, was becoming 
a custom in Cherokee communities. Committees entrusted with 
staging this important event were appointed long in advance. At 
the appointed time gifts for one’s own family, from grandfather 
to baby, as well as for sweethearts and friends, were laboriously 
carried to the appointed church or hall, ready for the tree-dressing 


2 For a biography of Willson, see the Appendix. 



112 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


crew to hang high or low as their bulkiness required. Burlesque 
presents always added to the fun, witty comments from the master 
of the distribution ceremonies increasing the gaiety. Tiny folk, 
blushing boys and girls in their teens, grown-ups of varying ages 
and sizes, all marched down the aisle and back again, bearing 
gifts. Tired but happy, families often drove miles in slow-going 
wagons before sleepy children could be put to bed. Morning 
brought a new joy; the household and its guests, whether chance 
comers or invited friends, sipped the Christmas egg-nog, an 
exhilarating beverage made by cooking beaten eggs with whiskey. 

The ’80s had their opera houses, but not until the late ’90s 
could a young man stop at an ice-cream parlor for a chat with his 
best girl. Picture shows came with the present century. 

By the 20th century social clubs had become popular. In 1904 
the Suzaine Club, composed of Jacksonville’s fashionable younger 
set, was holding semi-monthly meetings, the first Thursday after¬ 
noon for young ladies, the third Thursday night for young men 
guests. Its official personnel included Nella Douglas, president; 
Laura Duke, vice-president; Mozelle Newton, secretary; Mittie 
Brown, treasurer, and Annie Mae Duke, reporter. Pink and green 
were its colors; a pink carnation its flower. One meeting, doubt¬ 
less typical, was reported in the local paper as follows: 

“When business was over a little green book of conundrums 
was given each member. Women’s apparel furnished answers 
to each. This was a source of much merriment. Refreshments 
were served in the club colors and the dainty napkins forcibly 
reminded each one of the well-chosen flower, to say nothing of 
the weighty emblem—‘Alas! My Poor Heart’.” 

Soon the matrons became “42”-minded. Rusk had its Wednes¬ 
day Club, Jacksonville its Twentieth Century Club, both of which 
are approaching thirtieth birthdays. Neither has fallen before 
the onslaughts of bridge. Even the smaller towns soon acquired 
the club habit. Ponta had its Modern Priscillas, a sewing club 
with “42” as a diversion. 


CHAPTER XII 


Banks 

In early days various receptacles—from sugar bowls to old 
stockings—served as the chief depositories for Cherokee County 
wealth. Thousands of dollars in gold were thus cared for in 
Cherokee homes. Merchants doing extensive business kept large 
sums on deposit with New Orleans and Galveston firms, on which 
they could draw in the settlement of bills. Gradually citizens 
acquired the habit of depositing their money with local mer¬ 
chants and lawyers to be kept in their iron safes. 

In this manner F. W. Bonner, a Rusk attorney, added collection 
and exchange to his legal business, maintaining correspondents 
in Galveston and New York. Finally, in 1884, he opened Chero¬ 
kee County’s first bank in a little frame building on the corner 
of College and South Second streets, built for S. A. Willson’s 
law office and now used for a shoe shop. The bank first operated 
as F. W. Bonner & Son. Four years later a second son entered 
the firm and the name was changed to F. W. Bonner & Sons. 
It was later moved to the west side of the public square, the site 
now occupied by the Citizens State Bank. Branch banks were 
opened in New Birmingham and in Hearne. 

Transportation of the cash necessary for banking operations 
was apparently no problem. Wade Bonner, the older son, fre¬ 
quently rode horseback to Tyler with thousands of dollars in 
gold in a cloth belt which his mother had made for the purpose. 
T. H. Bonner, the youngest member of the firm, who is still 
a citizen of Rusk, recalls many trips on the train, when he brought 
from the Tyler bank in which his father was also interested ten 
thousand dollars rolled in a newspaper, in the guise of a bundle 
of old clothes. 

Caught in the panicky ’90s with eighty thousand dollars out 
in loans, the bank was unable to realize on its extensive real estate 
assets. Consequently it was forced into bankruptcy in November, 
1892. 

Some four years after the establishment of the Bonner bank, 
Wettermark & Bagley, Henderson bankers, opened a bank in 

113 


114 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Jacksonville in a frame building on Commerce Street, later the 
site of the First State Bank. Wettermark afterward withdrew, 
leaving D. W. Bagley to continue the business until it went down 
in the general crash of 1893. Jacksonville’s next banking experi¬ 
ence was even more disastrous. The Fleagers, father and two 
sons, came from Georgetown, about 1897, to open the C. N. 
Fleager & Company bank. For a time all went well. Suddenly, 
in 1903, one of the sons absconded with the deposits which, 
according to reports, he later lost in a Mexican mining venture. 
Jacksonville citizens were poorer by thousands of dollars. 

This ends the story of Cherokee County’s private banks. Only 
one bank was chartered prior to 1900. The First National Bank 
of Rusk was opened in the Acme Hotel building, now the Ford 
Station site, in 1890, with Captain E. L. Gregg as president and 
A. A. Simmons as cashier. Its capital stock was $50,000. In addi¬ 
tion to these officers, its first board of directors included B. 
Miller, Dr. W. G. Jameson, P. A. Blakey, M. J. Whitman, E. C. 
Dickinson, T. H. Cobble and J. W. Summers. Among out-of- 
town stockholders were D. L. Moody, Jr., of Galveston and 
Colonel George A. Wright, long-time mayor of Palestine. After 
the failure of the Bonner and the Bagley banks the First National 
Bank had the county banking field to itself. The business was 
moved to the building formerly occupied by the Bonner bank. 
Through the activities of Captain E. L. Gregg and E. C. Dickin¬ 
son its resources were used in the promotion of the iron boom 
of the ’90s. In 1920 its assets were liquidated through the Farmers 
and Merchants State Bank, Alex Ford being the liquidating 
agent. The two banks then had as presidents two law partners, 
W. H. Shook and W. T. Norman. The pending organization of 
a third bank led to the liquidation. 

The first two decades of the 20th century mark a significant 
expansion of the county’s banking facilities. The oldest institution 
in the present system is the First National Bank of Jacksonville, 
organized in 1900 largely through the initiative of Edmund Key 
of Marshall. 

When first approached on the subject of a new bank, Jackson¬ 
ville citizens refused to invest and the Marshall banker went 
home. Finally W. C. Bolton, by agreeing to buy them out when¬ 
ever they desired to sell, persuaded his brother, John H. Bolton, 
and Wesley Love to match his thousand dollars in stock. Thus 
the minimum local requirements were met, Key was notified and 
organization proceeded. The bank opened for business, October 
1, 1900, with W. C. Bolton as president and A. G. Adams as 


BANKS 


115 


cashier. Other members of the first board of directors were 
Edmund Key, P. A. Norris of Ada, Oklahoma, who had mer¬ 
cantile interests in Jacksonville, Wesley Love, J. H. Bolton and 
D. P. Jarvis of Troup. Its capital stock was soon increased from 
$25,000 to $50,000. 

The next Jacksonville bank was the Citizens National Bank. 
W. H. Sory was president and A. F. Kerr, formerly of San An¬ 
tonio, cashier. In 1904 this was consolidated with the First 
National Bank, the capital stock being increased to $75,000. Kerr 
became cashier of the consolidated banks. Bolton continued as 
president and Adams served as vice-president until he stepped into 
the presidency through Bolton’s resignation. In 1912 Adams 
moved to Oklahoma and M. C. Parrish of Alto became the bank’s 
third president. 1 In 1914 the present five-story building was com¬ 
pleted. Its 1934 officials include Gus S. Blankenship, president; 
F. D. Newton, vice-president, and John T. Lewis, cashier. 

Prior to 1900 the Cherokee farmer was wholly dependent upon 
the old-time store-credit system for financing his farming opera¬ 
tions. The Jacksonville First National Bank should be credited 
with the first bank offer to lend him money to make a crop. One 
banker gave the institution two years to live. Such a policy, he 
predicted, would break any bank. When the First National con¬ 
tinued to prosper, other banks ventured to follow its example. 
Thus began the end of the credit store. 

In 1902 the Continental Bank and Trust Company of Fort 
Worth established a branch institution at Alto. Seven years later 
this became the Continental State Bank, with J. G. Wilkinson, 
president; A. C. Harrison, vice-president; and Gus Rounsaville, 
cashier. Since 1920 Rounsaville has been president. J. A. Shat- 
tuck is the present cashier, M. J. Hogan the vice-president. On 
March 5, 1934, the Continental State Bank acquired the unsought 
distinction of being the only Cherokee County bank to make the 
front page of the newspapers with a bandit story. In the gun 
play which followed its attempted robbery, one bandit was killed 
and the other was captured as he fled. 

In 1906 the Jacksonville State Bank was organized with 
$25,000 capital stock. Its directors were T. S. Hatton (president), 
John Howard (cashier), F. Hufsmith, G. E. Dilley and Lucius 


1 Although a Cherokee-trained banker, M. C. Parrish has continued his bank¬ 
ing career elsewhere. After some years’ connection with the Texas Bank and 
Trust Company and the University Bank at Austin, during which time he 
promoted the establishment of banks in several small neighboring towns, he is 
now executive vice-president of the First State Bank at Overton. 



116 A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Gooch. Five years later this was absorbed by the newly-chartered 
First Guaranty State Bank. 

In 1907 the Farmers and Merchants State Bank of Rusk was 
chartered with a capital stock of $25,000. Its first board of di¬ 
rectors included W. T. Norman (president), W. H. Shook, G. 
W. Gibson, J. P. Gibson, T. H. Nees, Alex Ford, J. E. Bagley, 
J. F. Mallard and Doctor A. H. McCord. W. T. Norman is still 
president, with E. B. Musick as cashier. 

Dialville was the first of the smaller towns to have a bank, 
the Dialville State Bank being organized in 1907 with W. B. 
Cowan, president; C. D. Jarratt, vice-president; and J. D. Harris, 
cashier. Other directors included S. E. Acker, N. A. Slover and J. 
J. Dial. Afterward the bank was merged with the First State 
Bank at Jacksonville. 

In 1909 a second bank was organized in Alto, giving each 
of the three most populous towns two banks. The Alto State Bank 
was chartered with M. C. Parrish, president; H. H. Berryman, 
J. E. Watters, E. A. Blount, E. M. Decker, C. C. Francis, M. E. 
McClure and N. H. Agnew, directors; F. F. Florence, vice- 
president; T. D. Miller, cashier. The bank failed in 1924 and 
the Guaranty State Bank was organized, partially with Houston 
capital. Three years later this also went to the wall. A new or¬ 
ganization was immediately perfected, known as Alto State Bank. 
The dropping of the definite article as a part of its name dis¬ 
tinguished it from the 1909 institution. Its officers included H. H. 
Berryman, president; J. F. Smith, vice-president, and Mrs. Emma 
Berryman Yowell, cashier. In 1934 Alto State Bank became the 
First National Bank, with ex-Governor W. P. Hobby, president; 
J. F. Smith, vice-president; and R. G. Underwood, cashier. 

In March, 1911, the First Guaranty State Bank succeeded the 
Jacksonville State Bank. W. C. Bolton, who had been largely 
instrumental in its organization, was made president. Other di¬ 
rectors were Frank L. Devereux, vice-president; John Howard, 
cashier; R. O. Watkins, J. D. Williams, T. S. Hatton and A. G. 
Adams. After the Banking Guaranty Law was repealed the name 
was changed to the First State Bank. In 1916 A. G. Adams re¬ 
turned from Oklahoma to become active president, with the fol¬ 
lowing board of directors: W. C. Bolton, J. M. Meador, J. D. 
Williams, F. E. Churchill, F. L. Haberle, Frank L. Devereux 
and T. J. Cunningham. In 1933, as a result of withdrawal from 
the Federal Reserve System, the bank was forced into liquidation. 

In 1913 some of the promoters of the old Jacksonville State 
Bank sponsored the organization of a third Jacksonville bank. 


BANKS 


117 


The Farmers Guaranty State Bank was chartered by T. S. Hatton, 
L. F. Weeks, B. D. Dashiell, C. C. Childs, John Howard, Doctor 
J. M. Travis, W. J. Weatherby and others, with a capital stock 
of $50,000. The institution afterward failed. 

During 1912-13 and 1917-21 the expansion program included 
the opening of seven banks in the smaller towns. The Guaranty 
State Bank was opened at Mt. Selman with C. T. Burton, pres¬ 
ident; J. S.-Brock, vice-president and H. W. Ferguson, cashier. 
Later this became the Farmers and Merchants State Bank, in 
which W. H. Shook and W. T. Norman of Rusk had the con¬ 
trolling interest. The Guaranty State Bank of Ponta was estab¬ 
lished by G. W. Gibson, Doctor J. L. Summers, W. H. Shook, 
J. F. Mallard, Charles Kerr, Alex Ford, W. T. Norman and 
J. L. Bailey. The Farmers and Merchants State Bank at May- 
delle was incorporated by J. S. Arwine, J. S. Sherman, E. S. 
Ballew, Doctor L. E. Moore, Eugene Roach, E. B. Dashiell and 
W. Z. Powell. Afterward Shook and Norman of Rusk became 
majority stockholders. 

According to the diary of Doctor J. C. Falvey, $20,000 was 
the opening day’s deposit in the Guaranty State Bank at Wells. 
A space between two buildings had been enclosed as temporary 
quarters. Home-made doors were fastened with a chain and 
padlock. Five days later the deposits totalled $30,000. W. H. 
Shook, J. T. Simpson, A. O. Spinks, J. R. Oliver, S. W. Little¬ 
john, J. W. Tyra, W. D. Prince, T. B. Warner and C. A. Fortner 
were its first officials. It afterward became the First State Bank, 
whose present officials include W. T. Norman, president; T. B. 
Warner, vice-president, and E. B. Bailey, cashier. The timber 
industry in its territory has largely contributed to the strength 
of the Wells bank. 

The Farmers and Merchants State Bank of Gallatin was opened 
with W. T. Norman, president; W. H. Garner, W. H. Shook, 
W. W. Slover and Doctor Wylie Smith as the first board of 
directors. H. C. Duff was cashier. The Farmers and Merchants 
State Bank of Forest was chartered with W. H. Shook, H. A. 
Williamson, C. C. Ivie, W. T. Norman and T. B. Warner as the 
first directors. In 1921 the last of the group was chartered. The 
Citizens Guaranty State Bank of Reklaw opened with B. B. 
Perkins, president; J. C. Shankles, vice-president; P. S. Holmes, 
A. M. Jordan, G. W. Weatherby, John Irwin and Jim Irwin, 
directors; W. P. Richey, cashier. 

Today Wells has the only small town bank in the county. The 
Ponta bank failed. The others were voluntarily closed by their 


118 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


promoters and liquidated through other banks in which they were 
interested. 

The early ’20s mark the organization of the last two banks. 
In 1920 the Guaranty State Bank of Rusk was chartered with 
B. B. Perkins, E. L. Gregg, Louis Butler, Doctor T. H. Cobble, 
A. G. Odom, James T. Pryor, F. B. Guinn, J. B. Schochler and 
W. E. Sloan as directors. B. B. Perkins has been president and 
E. R. Gregg cashier since its organization. In 1921, W. J. 
Weatherby, N. H. Scogin, B. F. Davis, T. E. Acker and Doctor 
J. M. Travis became the first directors of the newly-chartered 
Guaranty State Bank of Jacksonville, occupying the quarters of 
the Farmers Guaranty State Bank for which Weatherby had 
served as liquidating agent. This bank, later operating as the 
Guaranty Bond State Bank, finally became the Texas State Bank 
of which T. E. Acker is president and C. D. Acker vice-president 
and cashier. 

In the nation-wide banking crisis of 1933, Cherokee bankers 
followed the precedent which they established during the World 
War. Despite the soundness of their own banks, they loyally 
rallied to the support of the presidential moratorium. During tbe 
twelve-day recess in banking activities Cherokee citizens supported 
the bankers by making the best of an unprecedented situation. 
Checks were exchanged for other checks. “Due bills ,> served as 
change when merchants found checks too large to handle. Credit 
was obligingly extended. Everywhere good-humored jesting light¬ 
ened the inconvenience. Deposits pouring through the tellers’ win¬ 
dows at the end of the enforced holiday paid silent tribute to 
faith in Cherokee County bankers. 

In addition to the local banks, the Federal Farm Loan Bank, 
acting through three farm loan associations organized in 1917 at 
Jacksonville, Rusk and Alto, has materially aided in financing 
Cherokee County landowners. Statistics show that from 1917 
to 1934 the three associations have made 728 loans, totalling 
$1,099,025. Ninety-five of these loans have been repaid, represent¬ 
ing an aggregate of $190,983. As a result of the oil boom in 1934 
many borrowers on this long-term payment plan cleared their 
land before the loans were due. Collections from May 23 to July 
23 reached the unprecedented total of $33,090. L. T. Moore has 
been secretary of the Rusk association and E. J. Holcomb secre¬ 
tary of the Alto association since their organization. John B. 
Guinn is present secretary of the Jacksonville association. 

As will be noted, many of the men who established its banking 
system are still leaders in Cherokee County civic and financial 


BANKS 


119 


affairs. Outstanding among those who have been called to other 
places is Fred Farrel Florence, president of the Republic National 
Bank and Trust Company of Dallas and a nationally-known 
figure. During the critical years of the present decade both the 
governor of Texas and the president of the United States have 
drafted him for service in putting over the national recovery 
program. 2 

2 F. F. Florence was born in New York City, November 5, 1891; came with 
parents to Cherokee County, 1892; began banking career in First National Bank 
of Rusk; resigned the presidency of the Alto State Bank to enlist in the avia¬ 
tion service in 1917; re-elected after the war; mayor of Alto, 1919; since 1920 
has been officially connected with Dallas banks, being elected president of the 
Republic Bank and Trust Company in 1929; Dallas civic leader. 



CHAPTER XIII 
The World War and After 


Since any adequate portrayal of Cherokee County World War 
activities is beyond the scope of this volume, the author chooses 
to limit treatment of the subject to a partial summary of the war 
records filed in the county clerk’s office. 

Organized in November, 1917, in accordance with the State 
Council of Defense program, the Cherokee County Council of 
Defense directed the county war work. Its personnel was as 
follows: Janes I. Perkins, chairman; W. H. Shook, W. T. Nor¬ 
man, C. F. Gibson, W. T. Whiteman, D. C. Vining, John C. 
Box, M. C. Parrish, A. G. Adams, Tom Dean, Mrs. W. T. Nor¬ 
man, Mrs. J. O. Hurst, Mrs. W. L. Fuller, W. M. Imboden; J. N. 
Bone, secretary. 

A comprehensive view of the work accomplished is afforded 
by the following list of Cherokee County war organizations, with 
their chairmen: 


Red Cross_ 

Salvation Army_ 

Ministers’ Association- 

Bankers’ Association_ 

Labor Reserve- 


County Food Administrator- 

County Fuel Administrator_ 

Home Guard- 

War Gardens_ 


Four-minute Men.. 


_Tom Dean 

_W. D. White 

_W. H. Baker 

_W. H. Shook 

_O. D. Jones 

_B. B. Perkins 

„J. E. McFarland 
-J. L. Brown 


-Mrs. John A. Beall 
George Williamson 

War Savings Certificates_A. G. Adams 

Liberty Loans_M. C. Parrish, W. H. Shook, 

Gus S. Blankenship and C. F. Gibson 
Women’s Liberty Loans_Mrs. W. L. Fuller 


United States Public Service 
Enrolling Officer_ 


-Doctor J. N. Bone 


Cherokee citizens who served as district officers include Doctor 
E. M. Moseley, chairman of the Exemption Board of the Eastern 
Federal District, and Doctors J. N. Bone and C. C. Francis, mem¬ 
bers of the Medical Advisory Board of District No. 11. 

Through the selective draft 1,034 Cherokee men were sent 


120 



















THE WORLD WAR and AFTER 


121 


to the training camps. In addition to these, the World War forces 
included sixty-three Cherokee soldiers and sailors who did not 
register, either because they were under age or were in service 
prior to the declaration of war. Fifty-seven Cherokee boys were 
registered in the Student Army Training Unit, of which Alexan¬ 
der (now Lon Morris) College and Rusk College each had sec¬ 
tions. The roster of Home Guards, organized to protect industrial 
plants and public property, contains one hundred and ninety-five 
names. Although no statistics concerning the total number of 
Cherokee soldiers who saw front-line service have been found 
available, one hundred and nineteen out of the three hundred and 
forty-nine men who have filed their discharge papers in the 
county clerk’s office fought at Chateau-Thierry, Soissons, Cham¬ 
pagne, Meuse-Argonne or the Somme. The county’s honor roll 
contains seventy-eight names. 

CHEROKEE COUNTY ROLL OF HONOR 

Killed in Action 


NAME 

Chapman, Harold _ 

ADDRESS 

Jacksonville 

Claiborne, Jim_ 

Jacksonville 

Coleman, Henry 

Rusk 

Finley, Tom 

Alto 

Glenn, Sam F._ 

_ P lisle 

Heermans, Willie _____ ___ _ 

Tsgate, Bryce 

_Jacksonville 

P lisle 

Mr.Gill, Rayford 

Forest 

Perry, Toe 

Dialville 

SWnrd W M 

Jacksonville 

Tipton, S. Rogers _ _ 

Died of Wounds 

Allen, Will 

Jacksonville 

Tronton 

Skelton, Jesse F,. ... 

... . Troup 

Skolley, Carl 

Alto 

Toler, Morriss F. _ . 

Killed by Accident 
Wrontenberry, Willie 

Died of Disease 

Ragley, Frasier _ _ _ _ 

..Jacksonville 

.___ Mt. Selman 

.Rusk 

Rag-ley, John T, 

Rusk 

Beard, Pepr1 . 

..Jacksonville 

Beeman, Marcellus (Col.) 

Bradford, H. (Col.)- 

..Rusk 

Rusk 

























122 A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


NAME 

Cook, Joe T, 

ADDRESS 

Jacksonville 

Cook, Canton 

... Jacksonville 

Davis ; Sydney 

Jacksonville 

Earle, Henry Orady 

—Earle’s Chappel 

Puller, Earle ... 

Jacksonville 

Orishy, Chest er . 

Jacksonville 

Hood, Donley Tra 

Cove Springs 

Jenkins, E, J. 

Call at in 

Norman, Daniel 

_Rusk 

McDonald, A. C. 

_Rusk 

Perkins, Alonzo 

.Rusk 

Prafher, D P. 

Jacksonville 

Reapan. T, T. 

Rusk 

Richey, Charles A. 

Rusk 

Saunders, Jake (Col,) 

Rusk 

Scoft, Albert E . - 

_Rusk 

Sorrels, T,awrenre 

Troup 

Spivey, Kirby 

Rusk 

Spain, Oscar 

_ Rusk 

Tillman, Edgar 

Jacksonville 

Vest, Jeff 

_ Alto 

Wounded 


Reard, Oliver 

Chent 

Rerry, Earl Dan 

Rusk 

Rarron, Dr. W. R. _ 

_ _ _ . Rusk 

Rinford, Willie. 

Rusk 

Caston, Cary P. 

Bullard 

Coolidp-e, Carl 

Jacksonville 

Deaton, Homer C. _ 

Turney 

Dement, James H. 

Oallatin 

Pace, Charlie 

Jacksonville 

Cilliam, Willie W _ __ 

Oallatin 

Hamilton, J. O. 

Alto 

Hammons, Aubrey 

J acksonville 

Holcomb, Wylie 

Mt, Selm^n 

Hughes, A. O. 

Jacksonville 

Jones, Albert S- . 

Troriton 

Justice, Pd. 

Rusk 

Rane, Riston 

Oallatin 

Martin, Rtifns S. 

Jacksonville 

Matthews, Preston A. 

_ Rusk 

Mavnard, Aubrey 

Rusk 

McElroy, Homer 

Mi von 

Obar, John.. 

Troup 

Odom, Oilbert 

Rusk 

Odom, Roy _ 

.Rusk 















































THE WORLD WAR and AFTER 


123 


NAME 

Payne, Alvin 

ADDRESS 

Ponta 

Pickens, Ray . . 

Jacksonville 

Ross, George A. 

Rusk 

Roddy, James R. 

Mixon 

Sherman, Ernest T,. 

MayHelle 

Sanderson, Ira Alton 

Mt. Salman 

Self, Frank 

Jacksonville 

Shattuck, W. J_ 

Rusk 

Stockton, Chester 

Mixon 

Stallings, Joe A. ....... 

_ Ponta 

Stringer, Charles P. 

Jacksonville 

Walton, Tom _ 

Jacksonville 1 


By the spring of 1919 Cherokee households, for the most part, 
had returned to a peace footing. Khaki thread and knitting needles 
had been laid aside. Uniforms had given place to civilian clothes. 
Wheatless and meatless days were a fading memory. Sweets could 
be served without a pang of conscience. 

And here we pause for a closer view of the Cherokee family 
before the sweeping changes of the post-war decade had begun 
to revolutionize it. Only yesterday, but how strange a group! 

Hosiery for the up-to-date Cherokee lady was limited to black 
and brown; ruffles still trimmed her undergarments; six inches was 
the orthodox clearance for her skirt, though the fashion maga¬ 
zines were announcing shorter lengths; during the past winter 
her ankles had probably been protected by high-topped shoes or 
spats. The day of Cherokee County beauty parlors had not dawned. 
The conservative matron still frowned on the rouge just coming 
into vogue among the younger set. Certainly she never dreamed 
of entering a barber shop. The idea of smoking would have ap¬ 
palled her. 

Tabloid papers had not come to delay meals. The family car 
was an open one which made little speed over Cherokee roads. 
No airplane had ever landed at a Cherokee County airport. Elec¬ 
tric refrigeration was still in the future. No Cherokee business 
man was ever seen in plus fours. Not a household listened to a 
radio, for the Westinghouse officials were yet to open the first 
broadcasting station, November 2, 1920. Even the cross-word 
puzzle was yet to make its debut. 

To some future writer, however, to whom Time will give a 
better perspective, is left the task of trailing the Cherokee family 
through the Labyrinth of the Prosperous Twenties, the Slough 
of Depression and the Plain of Recovery. 


iThis list is taken from the official roster filed in the county clerk’s office. 















CHAPTER XIV 


Towns 

alto 

In 1849 the original town site of Alto (a form of the Latin 
word for high), so named by Captain Henry Berryman because 
of its location on the dividing ridge between the Angelina and 
the Neches rivers, was a “magnificent prairie surrounded by 
forest,” part of an extensive acreage on the old Barr and Daven¬ 
port grant which had just been purchased by Colonel Robert F. 
Mitchell. 1 About 1851 Colonel Mitchell hauled goods from Shreve¬ 
port by ox-wagon and opened a store on the southeast corner 
formed by the intersection of Marcus Street and the King’s High¬ 
way, afterward successively owned by G. S. Doty and Doctor 
J. M. Noell. Such was the beginning of Alto. 

The business section soon extended eastward with the Masonic 
building and Koher’s grocery and saloon on the southwest and 
the southeast corners of the intersection of Ochiltree Street and 
the King’s Highway, the Odd Fellow’s hall east of Koher’s and 
Lippman’s, afterwards Cooper’s, store on the southeast corner of 
the intersection of the King’s Highway with Mill Street. North 
of the highway, just west of the present Baptist Church, were the 
Mitchell Hotel and the Isaac (Cooney) Allen store. Jim Muckle- 
roy was the first village blacksmith. Colonel Mitchell soon built 
a gin in the present Ahearn Addition. 

One of the most popular centers was the two-story stage- 
house on the northeast corner of the intersection of Marcus Street 
and the highway. Here the stage line from Waco to Nacogdoches 
made connection with the Nacogdoches-Crockett line. Always a 
news center, it was at least once “spot news” itself. The stage 

1 Colonel Mitchell, emigrating to Nacogdoches County with ten slaves in 1837, 
soon became a partner of Colonel John Durst in an extensive mercantile estab¬ 
lishment at Mount Sterling on the Angelina River. Prior to 1849, however, 
settlement of his business affairs in Natchez and New Orleans, followed by 
enlistment in the United States Army during the Mexican War, kept him out 
of Texas the greater part of the time. In 1851 he brought his bride, formerly 
Mrs. T. M. Matthews of Douglas, to Alto. He died in 1878. 

124 



TOWNS 


125 


stopped with a dead driver, that gentleman having just succumbed 
to a heart attack. 

The first Alto schools were taught in the lodge buildings. A 
schoolgirl’s composition, entitled, “There’s a Time for All 
Things,” started the campaign for the first school building. In it 
the author, now Mrs. M. W. Armstrong, declared Alto had never 
been known to draw the purse strings in public affairs. Stirred by 
her faith, Doctor W. L. Kirksey immediately started a subscrip¬ 
tion for a new school. The resulting structure, a rough, frame 
building, located at the convergence of Marcus and Ochiltree 
streets, also housed goat kids at night and served as a union 
church on Sunday. In the earliest years, however, children were 
frequently sent to school in the older communities near by. 
Among outstanding teachers were Peyton Irving, brought to 
Alto from Nacogdoches County by Doctor J. M. Noell, Mrs. 
Anna Ella Harris, and Professor Stripling. The Texas Almanac 
for 1857 refers to a fine female school at Alto. In 1888 the Alto 
Cooperative Educational Association was organized with H. W. 
Berryman as president. Through its efforts the “Alto High 
School” was established with J. B. Collins as principal In 1903 
the Alto Independent School District was incorporated. Today 
the town has an accredited high school. 

Among prominent pioneer families, many of whom have de¬ 
scendants still living in the town, were the Harrisons, Butlers, 
Noells, Fishers, Spiveys, Roarks, Dotys, Berrymans, Boones, 
Boyds, Scotts, Harrys, Frizzells, Holcombs, Singletarys, Hills, 
Selmans, and Armstrongs. 

In February, 1852, the San Antonio Road voting precinct was 
moved to Alto, with Willis Selman as the first returning officer. 
The town was incorporated in 1909, with W. M. Blanton as the 
first mayor. E. P. Palmer now holds this office. 

After a disastrous fire in 1882 brick houses were built in what 
is now the chief business block. Another fire ten years later and 
a cyclone in 1893 proved additional major disasters. Among the 
merchants who weathered these blows were A. C. Harrison, H. Y. 
Fisher, T. J. Ahearn, L. W. Tittle, L. F. Hill, R. Usher and 
J. W. Summers & Company. 

The first newspaper was the Alto News , owned by Doctor J. W. 
Teague and published by Charles J. Matthews. The plant was sold 
to J. E. Shook. Later the Alto Herald was established. Its editors 
include Reverend Thompson, a Methodist minister, T. M. Mc¬ 
Clure, Elbert E. Allen and Frank L. Weimar, the present owner. 

Today Alto has thirty-five business concerns, three churches 


126 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


(Baptist, Methodist and Christian), a brick school building, two 
banks, three lodges, electric lights and a sewerage system. The 
oldest business firms are R. M. Fisher, Berryman & Watters and 
Allen's Drug Store. 

Heavy, red soil has made Alto a noted cotton section and, be¬ 
cause it is one of the best cotton markets in the area, cotton from 
three counties has been brought there for sale. Truck-growing 
and the timber industry have also largely contributed to Alto’s 
prosperity. 

RUSK 

When the Rusk town site was purchased, John Kilgore, living 
in an Indian shanty on Lot 2, Block 31, was the only white man 
within its boundaries. 2 Not long, however, was he left alone. 
Granville J. Carter and William T. Long, Douglas settlers who 
had moved to Cook’s Fort to await the first lot sale, and Edward 
L, Givens, soon built homes. Eliza Long and Sudie Givens were 
the first white children born in the town. 

Among the newcomers during the next four years were the 
Philleos, Vinings, Camerons, Cannons, Vaughts, Bonners, Millers, 
Boyds, Langs, Moseleys, Guinns, Cooks, Gibsons, Brittains, Jack- 
sons, Irbys, Mitchells, Dossetts, Copelands, Henrys, Dillards, 
McEacherns, Wades, and Martins. Many of these families had 
settled on farms adjacent to Rusk between 1839 and 1845 and 
are represented in the citizenship of today. By 1850 the town 
was credited with a population of 355. 

On May 2, 1847, Reverend J. B. Harris organized the Cumber¬ 
land Presbyterian Church and within a year its four members had 
increased to thirty-five. Walter E. and Miss Emma Long and W. 
D. Deckard are descendants of its charter members. In 1850 
Reverend Harris also organized the first Sunday school, a union 
school which existed until the ’80s. 

The first church building was a union church, located on the 
present site of the E. L. Summers residence, Lot 4, Block 22. In 
1853 it was sold at auction to satisfy the claims of the contractor 
and was purchased by the Cumberland Presbyterians. Reverend 
A. J. Coupland, Reverend M. Priest and Reverend N. A. Davis 
were later pastors of this church. 

The Methodists, the second church to perfect an organization, 


2 The Kilgores afterward moved to the north part of town. The rock-enclosed 
cemetery in the old road to the State Hospital, concerning which many erro¬ 
neous reports have circulated, contains the graves of members of the Kilgore 
family. 



TOWNS 


127 


were the first to erect a separate building. In the fall of 1851 their 
first church was built on the site of their present brick structure. 
Among early Methodist ministers were Reverend John Adams, 
Reverend A. H. Shanks, Doctor C. G. Young and Reverend E. P. 
Rogers. 

Late in March, 1851, Reverend I. M. Becton and Reverend 
J. D. Sharp organized the Old School Presbyterian Church with 
eight charter members. Among the pastors of this church were 
Reverend W. K. Marshall and Reverend John Bell. The building 
stood on Henderson Street, two blocks from the courthouse square. 
It is said to have had the first self-supporting roof in Rusk and 
people were at first quite doubtful about its safety. 

In April, 1906, the two Presbyterian organizations united and 
two years later found it advisable to move to a third location, 
the present site of the Presbyterian Church. Reverend J. L. Stitt 
was the first pastor of the combined churches. In 1910, Doctor 
S. M. Tenney, now curator of the Southern Presbyterian Church, 
took charge and during his pastorate, in 1914, the Presbyterians 
erected the first brick church in Rusk. 

While Reverend W. G. Caperton and Reverend Chase had con¬ 
ducted Baptist services in Rusk, no Baptist Church was organized 
until the '80s. In 1891, largely through the initiative of Mrs. M. 
W. Farmer, a building was erected on Lot 2, Block 18. Reverend 
J. H. Thorn, chaplain of the Rusk branch of the penitentiary, 
was the first pastor. In 1910 the building was moved to the present 
site of the Baptist Church. In 1925 it was torn down and the 
present structure begun. Through a legacy left by Mr. and Mrs. 
B. Miller, long-time Rusk merchants, the Catholic Church was 
built about 1905. The Christian Church was organized in the 
’20s. After meeting in various places, the congregation built the 
present tabernacle on Henderson Street in 1927. 

There is no roster of early Rusk teachers. The following names, 
found here and there, are only a part of them. 

The first school was taught by the Presbyterian minister, Rev¬ 
erend J. B. Harris. In 1849, H. Clarke was advertising the Female 
Institute, which she “intended to make permanent.” She had “no 
extra-prodigious feats in rearing the tender thought to herald 
forth to the world, but she believes herself a competent in¬ 
structress and will endeavor to prove her faith by her works.” 
The fine arts course included instruction in piano, drawing, paint¬ 
ing and embroidery. Each pupil furnished her own chair and table. 

Prior to 1850 John B. Mitchell and Abraham Gildewell also 
had schoolrooms. In 1854, H. Lane taught just northeast of the 


128 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


original town site. Miss Jane Tullar and Mrs. Lizzie Mullins were 
among those teaching in the two-story building on Lot 9, Block 
20. Mrs. A. H. Shanks and Mrs. Margaret Wade taught together 
in a home school in the east part of town. Mrs. Mary Baker was 
among those teaching in the Methodist Church. Just after the 
war Colonel W. T. Yeomans and H. I. Wilson taught in the 
Old School Presbyterian Church. 

A Mrs. Thompson, who taught for a number of years in a 
number of places, seems to have been the outstanding primary 
teacher of pioneer days, the consensus of opinion apparently hav¬ 
ing been that “if you can’t start under Mrs. Thompson, there’s 
no use starting.” Today, however, the only other definite descrip¬ 
tion of this estimable lady is “she was very fond of pork and 
turnips.” 

Perhaps the center of learning for the oldest citizens of today 
was the Rusk Male and Female Academy, first known as the 
Stephens and Carter Academy, located on Henderson Street, Lot 
2, Block 9, now the site of the Alex Ford residence. This two- 
story structure, quite pretentious for its day, was built by Logan 
D. Stephens, who taught the first session in 1851. Either asso¬ 
ciated with Stephens or succeeding him when he moved to Rusk 
County in 1852 were Professor and Mrs. J. J. Carter, highly 
educated Georgians who had settled in Rusk in the late ’40s. In 
1855 Professor Carter was elected principal of Tyler University. 
Although frequently changing owners, the building was used for 
school purposes until torn down in the ’80s. Only the following 
fragments of its history are available. 

In 1859, Mrs. E. F. Mullins opened Rusk Female Academy, in 
which her husband, a Rusk attorney, taught the advanced classes 
in Latin and French. In 1866, Mrs. J. J. Carter, who had just 
moved back to Rusk after some ten years absence, announced the 
opening of a “Female School” in the following advertisement: 

“From her long experience and former success as a teacher, the 
principal flatters herself that she will give entire satisfaction to 
all her patrons. No pains will be spared in securing a thorough and 
rapid advancement of pupils committed to her care. Discipline 
will be mild but strict.” 

In 1870 the Breithaupts were conducting the Rusk Male and 
Female Academy, Mrs. Breithaupt teaching music and embroidery. 
Among other teachers who served during the years were Reverend 
and Mrs. W. K. Marshall, Professor and Mrs. J. B. Mitchell, 
Mrs. Knox, Mrs. Locke and her daughter, Miss Mary Locke, 
and Doctor Bacon. Among its students were James Stephen Hogg 


TOWNS 


129 


and Thomas Mitchell Campbell, future governors, Julia and 
Fannie Hogg, Doctor Will Dumas, Doctor A. H. McCord, B. C. 
Coupland, Mrs. Mary Ann Reagan, Mrs. Jennie Gibson, and 
Mrs. S. R. Curtis, who vividly recalls her Friday afternoon 
dialogues with Jim Hogg. 

Music was an important part of the curriculum. A few Rusk 
women still remember dancing the square dance, during the two- 
hour noon intermission, to music played on its rosewood piano, 
“with a back like a bookcase.” During some years the sessions 
were very short and the entire time devoted to one subject. At 
the close of one of Doctor Bacon’s grammar schools he offered 
fifty dollars to anyone who could give his students a sentence 
which they could not parse. The doctor saved his money. 

In 1885 Rusk levied a special school tax and four years later 
the Rusk free school district purchased the Rusk Masonic Institute 
building and established a public school. 3 In 1912 it was made a 
four-year high school, attaining first class rank two years later. 
A. S. Moore is the 1934 superintendent. The faculty member with 
the longest service record is the beloved Miss Ruth Gibson. During 
almost a quarter of a century this member of one of the earliest 
pioneer families has helped to mold the lives of Rusk children. 

The story of early Rusk newspapers has been given in Chapter 
IV. In 1879 the Texas Observer was succeeded by the Rusk Ob¬ 
server, published by J. E. Shook. In 1882 the Cherokee Standard 
succeeded the Rusk Observer, being published in turn by W. E. 
Miller, J. E. Shook, R. E. Hendry, Jernigan & Shook, F. R. 
Trimble, A. J. Owen and John B. Long. In January, 1888, the 
Cherokee Standard was consolidated with the Labor Enterprise, 
which had been published for a short time by W. F. Black of 
Box’s Creek, and became known as the Standard-Enterprise. Rev¬ 
erend I. V. Jolly was later associated with John B. Long as editor. 

In 1889, J. A. Padon and a Mr. Kirkpatrick established the 
Cherokee Herald which was afterward sold to John B. Long, the 
consolidated papers becoming the Standard-Herald. This was sold 
to Reverend J. S. Burke and his son, R. A. Burke, who changed 
its name to the Industrial Press. In 1906 the Burkes purchased 
the Weekly Journal, which had been published by William C. 
Cloyd since 1901, and continued to publish the consolidated papers 
as the Press-Journal. Among its later owners were F. B. and 
Charles R. Guinn and W. M. Ellis. In 1919, W. L. Martin estab¬ 
lished the Rusk Cherokeean which was consolidated with the 


3 See Chapter XI for the story of the Institute and other Rusk schools. 



130 A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Press-Journal in 1923 and sold to H. O. and Mrs. Pearl Ward in 
1925. Mrs. Ward is the present owner and editor. 

Rusk has also had the following papers: Cherokee Blade, estab¬ 
lished in 1893, and published in turn by Priest & Adams, J. E. 
Shook and C. F. Gibson; Sentinel, published for a few months in 
1913 by E. A. Priest; Cherokee Sun, established in 1914 and pub¬ 
lished in turn by W. P. Singletary and Walter Hodges; Standard, 
having a brief existence in 1933 with W. I. Breedlove as editor; 
Cherokee County Chief, established by Granville Williams in 1934. 
In February, 1934, the Daily Ranger, the first daily in Rusk’s 
history, made its appearance, with Granville Williams as editor. 

Two pioneer hotels stood high in public favor. The Bracken 
House, known in the ’40s as the Union Hotel and later temporarily 
operated as the Irby, Thompson and Rusk hotels, stood on the 
still popular southeast corner of Block No. 10, the present Ford 
Station site. In the early ’50s the Cherokee Hotel was opened 
near the southwest corner of the public square by Varnum Ozment 
and operated in turn by Alfred Fox and William T. Long until 
the ’90s. The house still stands, known as the Lang building. 

The first brick hotel was the Comer-Fariss Hotel, built in 1885. 
Five years later Theodore Miller erected the Acme Hotel on the 
Bracken House site. Opening with a grand banquet and ball, it 
enjoyed a wealthy patronage in the boom days of the iron rush. 

Business activities center around the courthouse square. The 
first merchants were on the north side (Lots 6 and 9), Granville 
J. Carter and Theron L. Philleo carrying stocks of general mer¬ 
chandise, including liquor. On the south end of the west side 
Givens & Haydon had a grocery and saloon in 1847. First Mon¬ 
days were trades days on which farmers gathered in the village 
to exchange surplus products and stray animals and incidentally 
gathered around the hotel and saloon to exchange news. 

Among other firms existing prior to 1850 were Allan A. 
Cameron & Company; Able, Brittain & Parsons; Oglesby & Mon¬ 
gold. Merchants advertising in the early ’50s included B. F. Roun¬ 
tree, Varnum Ozment, James Rowe, John K. McGrew, Osgood 
& Jennings, Dickinson & Sterne, R. B. Martin & Brother, William 
A. Morrison, B. Miller, Schmeder & Company and John Findley. 

Cicero Broome had “a large and extensive gin and mill factory, 
keeping constantly on hand cotton gins and mills, wheat fans and 
threshers, and furniture made in the cabinet shop,” situated 
northwest of the original town site in what was called Broome 
Town. It has been remarked that gin machinery in those days 
was made of wood, not iron. 


TOWNS 


131 


Among the new firms in the later ’50s were W. S. Parks, 
Cramer & Oppenheimer, B. W. McEachern, J. M. Jones & Com¬ 
pany, Casper Renn Wholesale and Retail Drug Store, Renn & 
Veitch Family Grocery and Provision House, and E. W. Bush. 
Many of the stores had barrooms. 

Advertisements in the '60s included the following new firms: 
J. C. Francis & Son; Miller & Williams (wholesale and retail) ; 
Boyd, Frazer & Parks; S. B. Barron; Hicks, Aycock & Mallard; 
Philleo & Herndon; J. J. Mallard; S. J. Lewis & Company; Gam- 
mage & Reed; Whitescarver, Hughes & Company (gunsmiths 
and cabinet makers) ; and the Cherokee Iron Works (manufac¬ 
turing plows “unsurpassed by any northern make”). In 1874 the 
Tillotson & Stallings furniture, wagon and buggy factory offered 
to exchange its products for country produce. Its motto was, “Live 
and let live.” 

Among the carpenters who helped to build early Rusk were 
Robert Green, John M. Evans, Duncan McEachern and Luther 
Johnson. Blacksmith shops, so essential in early days, were oper¬ 
ated by John Findley, Austin Jones and J. L. Whitescarver. James 
Cook had, among other business enterprises, a livery stable. Wil¬ 
liam N. Bonner operated a tanyard, another vital factor in the 
pioneer community. 

A number of Rusk business houses deserve especial mention 
for longevity. The J. J. Mallard general merchandise store, 
opened in 1864, was continued by his son, T. B. Mallard, as a 
grocery store until 1930. The Old Corner Drug Store, owned by 
J. F. Mallard, passed its thirty-ninth birthday before being sold 
to A. G. Odom in 1920. Doctor E. M. Moseley has been in the 
drug business over thirty years, A. G. Odom being a partner in 
the original business. Beginning in the ’70s, three generations of 
Neelys have sold goods in Rusk. The Pryor Machine Shop and 
Foundry, now operated by Alvin Pryor, has existed more than 
forty years. The W. H. Wallace Hardware Company dates from 
1895. 

For more than a quarter of a century the C. & W. Bauer Con¬ 
fectionary and Cafe (south side of the courthouse square) was 
noted throughout East Texas. Its history even antedates the 
Bauer name. In the early ’50s Casper Renn, an enterprising Ger¬ 
man who became one of the town’s most extensive real estate 
owners, established a bakery and confectionary on the site. After 
the Civil War his brother, Benedict Renn, made it famous as a 
gingerbread and beer parlor. Hops were grown at the rear of the 
shop and the beer was kept in tubs of cold water. On Christmas 


132 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Day he kept open house. With the children “Uncle Bennie” was 
a prime favorite. In 1896, in return for their care during the 
remainder of his life, he transferred his business to Mrs. Cather¬ 
ine Bauer and her son William, who had some years previously 
made a small investment in it. When Mother Bauer retired, Mr. 
and Mrs. William Bauer continued to render the service which 
had made the cafe famous, until they moved to Colorado in 1923. 

In 1853 Andrew Schmeder and his wife Christina opened a 
store on the west side (Lot 8), which the latter still owned more 
than a half century later. After being left a widow Mrs. Schmeder 
married B. Miller. They continued to operate the business under 
three successive firm names—B. Miller, Miller & Cannon, and 
Mrs. Christina Miller—until death claimed them both in 1905. 
Even then the business survived. By their will two long-time 
employees, W. T. Caver and W. H. Tucker, inherited it. Tucker 
eventually became the sole owner and continued to operate it 
until 1932. 

B. Miller, coming from Germany as a boy without a dollar, 
acquired a large fortune through his shrewdness as a businessman 
and trader. The bulk of his wealth was bequeathed to orphans’ 
homes and churches. 

Rusk’s ranking merchant, a gracious, snowy-haired woman of 
eighty-one years, retired in 1934. For more than half a century 
Sarah Rebecca Curtis sold hats. Her first stock of millinery was 
hauled from* Jacksonville, the nearest railroad point, by wagon. 
She outlived every Rusk business in operation when she opened 
her doors. 

The first Rusk charter was approved in 1850 but no record 
of city organization has been found. In 1856 a second charter was 
granted and E. W. Bush was elected mayor. Among his successors 
were John L. Whitescarver, Thomas J. Johnson, Jefferson Shook, 
E. L. Givens, Charles A. Miller, A. J. Owen, R. E. Hendry, R. B. 
Martin, J. O. Coupland, E. H. F. McMullen, L. D. Guinn, W. H. 
Shook, William M. Ellis, G. S. Huston, Doctor J. L. Summers, 
and E. R. Gregg, the present mayor. 

Outstanding among the marks of progress during the past two 
decades have been the waterworks system (1914), the million- 
gallon reservoir and the sewerage system (1925), the pavement of 
the courthouse square and the approaching blocks (1927), the 
gas system (1927), the erection of a modern post office (1928) 
and additional paving (1934). 

Among the organizations promoting the town’s development 
during the earlier decades of the present century were the Boosters 



JACKSONVILLE PIONEERS 

Top, left to right: M. L. Earle, J. A. Templeton 
Bottom, left to right Drury H. Lane, Mrs. Amanda Frederick, 

and Thomas Green Bays 

































































































































































TOWNS 


133 


Club and the Commercial Club. The Kiwanis Club, organized in 
1923 with thirty-six members, is now the leader in civic programs. 
W. W. Finley is president. 

JACKSONVILLE 

Jacksonville of today, the largest town in the county, is the 
second Cherokee town to bear the name. Undaunted by being left 
some one and one-half miles southwest of the International Rail¬ 
road, the first Jacksonville picked itself up and sat down again 
where trains did stop. Subsequent growth has brought an over¬ 
lapping of the two town sites. 

Not even Old Jacksonville, however, was the original settle¬ 
ment in the neighborhood. In the middle ’40s, David Tumlinson, 
F. C. Hardgraves, E. J. Debard, Huntley Wiggins, J. S. Lind¬ 
sey, James G. Earle, David Templeton and others established the 
settlement known as Gum Creek, taking its name from a near-by 
stream. In 1847 Jackson Smith joined the group, settling on the 
James Ford Labor. Soon after building his log house and a 
blacksmith shop, Smith laid out the Jacksonville town site north¬ 
east of his house. The name Gum Creek, however, was not 
immediately abandoned. Even the post office, established in June, 
1848, was designated as the Gum Creek office. 

Jackson Smith, a Kentuckian, had served the Texas Republic 
as Indian scout in 1838. Charmed by the beauty of the Cherokee 
country, he determined to make it his home. Returning in 1847, 
he remained a Cherokee County citizen until his death in 1897. 
Appointed Gum Creek postmaster, he kept the office in his black¬ 
smith shop. In later years he served as county commissioner. 

Tradition has long had it that Smith gave the town its name. 
Whether he named it for himself, the Illinois town where he 
learned the blacksmith trade, or for Doctor Jackson, whose office 
was the first building on the town-site, has been a matter of much 
friendly controversy. In 1915, Thomas Green Bays, a Cherokee 
County lad of fifteen when Absalom Gibson surveyed the town 
site, returned to Jacksonville after an absence of sixty-three 
years and added an entirely different version of the town’s 
christening. According to Bays, a crowd gathered around a fire 
in front of Tom Dean’s store, just east of the town site, while 
Surveyor Gibson was completing his notes. Gibson remarked that 
the town must have a name. Dean suggested that, since it was on 
Jackson Smith’s land and Doctor Jackson was the first man on 
the site, Jacksonville would be a fitting name. The crowd cheered 
its approval. Jacksonville it was called. 


134 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Among the town’s earliest citizens were the Ragsdales, Jowells, 
Lanes, Yarbroughs, Kinchelos, Rushings, Giffens, Isaacs, Wat¬ 
sons, Martins, Wootens, Glidewells, Kinbros, Hughes, Maples, 
McKinneys, Ingles, and Kennedys. 

In November, 1848, Jacksonville was made a voting precinct, 
with E. B. Ragsdale as returning officer. In 1849 the Gum 
Creek School, which had been opened in 1845, was replaced by 
another log house near the present West Side School. Here Joe 
C. Rushing, Richard A. Wooten, Doctor Abraham Glidewell, 
E. E. Armstrong and Reverend McCullough, a Scotch minister, 
were teachers. In 1856, Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Bridges taught in 
the new Masonic Hall. In 1860, H. L. Martin and N. A. Men¬ 
denhall closed their school in the Methodist Church to enlist in 
Confederate service in Virginia. T. B. Matlock was probably the 
most prominent of the later teachers. 

Two denominations, the Methodists and the Baptists, built 
churches in Old Jacksonville prior to 1850. Later the Cumberland 
Presbyterians built just east of the town. Among the ministers 
were Doctor Orceneth Fisher, Reverend A. H. Shanks, Reverend 
Jefferson Shook, Reverend Robert Finley, Reverend John B. 
Renfro, Reverend Robert Rountree, Reverend D. M. Stovall, 
Reverend Isham Lane, and Reverend G. W. Slover. 

Despite competition with Larissa, business must have been 
profitable. In his reminiscences the late M. L. Earle lists forty- 
eight firms in Old Jacksonville’s mercantile roster. The first three, 
all of whom carried general stocks in log houses on different sides 
of the public square, were A. S. Johnson & Company, Hughes & 
Maples, and J. B. Able & Son. W. T. D. Guy, then manager 
for the Johnson Company, is credited with having sold the first 
bill of goods. He was also the first postmaster after the name was 
changed from Gum Creek to Jacksonville in 1850. In 1855 Peter 
G. Rhome opened a stock of goods bought in New York, 
shipped to Houston and hauled to Jacksonville in ox-wagons. 

The town’s hotel, built partially of logs, was opened by Joseph 
Turney in 1850. In this popular community center General 
Thomas J. Rusk 4 and many other Texas heroes were served by a 
succession of managers, including Thomas D. Campbell, father 
of the future governor. The last proprietor was W. C. Cobb, who 
established the first hotel in present Jacksonville (Lots 17-18, 
Block 137). 

4 In 1855, General Rusk was chief speaker at a barbecue. His mission was to 
persuade citizens who had deserted the Democratic ranks for Know Nothingism 
to return to the fold. 



TOWNS 


135 


In 1871 railroad surveyors passed the old town by. Two town 
sites were laid off before E. B. Ragsdale, officially consulted as 
to a suitable site, suggested the division between the waters of 
the Neches River and Mud Creek. His suggestion was followed 
and on July 27, 1872, Sarah Fry sold the International Railroad 
Company seventy-five acres of land with the stipulation that the 
road run its cars to Fry's Summit and permanently locate a 
depot on the land on or before January 1, 1873. Thus the pres¬ 
ent site of Jacksonville was established. 

Gay in the face of its death warrant, Old Jacksonville, already 
noted for its “feuds, fights and homicides,” opened five new 
saloons for its sporting newcomers, took one last wild fling at 
living and moved bodily to the new town site. When the exodus 
ended only two dwellings and one store building were left. 
Getting into new quarters became a race. Maples, Ragsdale & 
Company unloaded the first building material in the business 
section, but overnight George Tilley put up his saloon. Allen & 
Lawlor, Peter G. Rhome, B. K. Smith (all general merchants), H. 
Gover & Company (drugs), W. H. Lovelady and A. J. Chessher 
(groceries and saloons), the Masonic Lodge and the Methodist 
Church soon followed. Houses, one side at a time, were loaded 
on ox-wagons, hauled to their new sites and put together again. 
New Jacksonville came partially ready-made! Had it not been 
for the panic of 1873 its early development would doubtless 
have been even more rapid. 

Only one of the old town firms is represented in the Jackson¬ 
ville business directory of today. Ragsdale Brothers, present 
Jacksonville’s oldest firm, is the direct descendant of Maple, 
Ragsdale & Company. Among other early firms were J. & C. 
Bolton, Clapp & Brown (J. H.), J. P. Douglas & Company, Two 
Brothers Saloon, B. B. Cannon, L. Grimes, N. G. Gragard, 
Jarratt & Goodson, Thompson & Dellis, S. T. Spruill (carriage 
and wagon maker), J. A. Templeton & Company, and McKinney 
& Brown (W. A.). W. H. Lovelady built the first brick store. 
E. B. Ragsdale & Sons and McKinney & Brown built the next 
two in 1882. 

In addition to Ragsdale Brothers, Jacksonville’s 1934 busi¬ 
ness directory shows a number of firms with distinguished 
service records. Among the oldest are the Jacksonville Drug Store, 
established by John H. Bolton in 1882 and now operated by the 
Parker-Tipton Drug Company under the same name: J. L. 
Brown, a drygoods business established in 1895; and the Sam 
D. Goodson Hardware Company just a year younger. 


136 A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


The dean of Jacksonville merchants, however, was the late 
W. A. Brown, with sixty-one years of continuous service to his 
credit. After two years’ employment as clerk for Clapp & Brown 
he formed a partnership with William McKinney in 1874. For 
the next fifty-nine years he operated on a strictly cash basis, 
never swerving from his original “buy as you need and pay as 
you go” policy. While others fell victim to panics and bank 
failures the Brown business stood on this rock foundation, a 
marvel to many who deemed adherence to such a plan impossible. 
In this pioneer store Jacksonville farmers found not only a source 
of supplies but an outlet for surplus produce hitherto largely 
unmarketable. In his untiring efforts to create markets W. A. 
Brown rendered invaluable service. 5 

The Cobb House, which had been moved from the old town to 
the corner of Kickapoo and Main Streets, and the Spear House, 
on the present Liberty Hotel site, were the most noted of Jack¬ 
sonville’s early hotels. 

The old town never had a charter. Jacksonville of today was 
incorporated in May, 1873, the I. & G. N. station being the 
center of the original city limits. J. H. Martin was the first 
mayor. His successors include M. D. Morris, W. M. Andrews, 
R. H. Small, N. M. Fain, J. H. Thompson, Sam A. Cobb, W. H. 
Sory, John C. Box, M. L. Earle, J. E. McFarland and T. E. 
Acker. In 1931 the city manager form of government was 
established. 

The Methodists had the first church, a box house near the W. 
A. Brown residence, which also served as a union Sunday school 
until the Presbyterians built on their lot about 1880. In 1882 the 
Baptists added their church to the group. The Christian Church 
is the youngest of the organizations. During a six-year period, 
1908-14, the present Methodist, Presbyterian, Central Baptist and 
First Baptist Church buildings were erected. 

Jacksonville’s earliest educational center was the Jacksonville 
Collegiate Institute. Its history has been given in Chapter XI. 
In 1882, Professor J. M. Fendley advertised the Jacksonville 
Male and Female Academy in the same building: 

“Board in the best families. Young men and ladies who 
desire an education that will fit them for the practical part of 
life or prepare them to enter any of the higher colleges and 
universities will do well to attend this school.” 

In November, 1885, W. H. Lovelady and other trustees of 

5 After the retirement of William McKinney, A. C. Dixon, a stepson of Mr. 
Brown, was a partner in the business for more than forty years. 



TOWNS 


137 


the Jacksonville Institute, a school conducted in the old Collegiate 
Institute building, sold its property and added the proceeds to the 
fund raised by Jacksonville citizens for a new public school. A 
two-story frame building was erected on the site of the present 
East Side School. In 1890 it was destroyed by a storm. Financial 
difficulties and disagreement concerning the proper site for a 
new building left the town without a public school until the 
first brick building was erected on the corner of East Rusk and 
Austin streets in 1892, now the Beall Apartments. In 1893 school 
opened with one hundred and sixty students. 

To provide a school during the above crisis John H. Bolton, 
W. A. Brown, J. A. Templeton and others incorporated the 
Jacksonville Educational Association, which established the Sunset 
Institute on the present site of the M. P. Alexander home. In 
1894 the association graciously donated the property as a part 
of the bonus offered for the selection of Jacksonville as the new 
site for the Methodist school at Kilgore, now Lon Morris College. 
The building was later torn down. 

In 1895 Jacksonville voted a school tax and ten years later 
became an independent school district. J. W. Shipman, G. L. 
Newton, John C. Box, M. H. Fite, E. H. Goodridge and R. E. 
Troutman were the first trustees. The present school plant, 
consisting of five brick and stone buildings, was built between 
1910 and 1925, the East Side School being the first unit and 
the high school the last. The current enrollment is 2,016, of whom 
1,476 are white and 540 negroes. In 1913, under the superin¬ 
tendency of B. J. Albritton, the Jacksonville high school attained 
first class rank. Four years later it became a fully accredited 
four-year Class A high school. Larue Cox is the present 
superintendent. 

The first Jacksonville newspaper was the Texas Intelligencer, 
published by A. R. McCallom and J. H. Mason. In 1881, John 
H. Hutchinson established the Cherokee Argonaut. Three years 
later the Jacksonville Intelligencer appeared, with R. H. Small 
as editor. Begun as a “six-column folio,” extensive patronage 
by Jacksonville merchants necessitated enlargement before its 
first birthday. In 1886 it was sold to T. M. McClure. Later C. L. 
Finlay became his partner. In 1888-89 the Boomer was published 
by J. A. Padon. 

The Jacksonville Banner, now the Cherokee County Banner, 
succeeded the Boomer. The Banner was first published by O. W. 
Dodson and J. E. McFarland. For some ten years after Dodson’s 
death, in 1890, McFarland continued its publication. About 1900 


138 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


he sold out but soon repurchased the plant. In 1913 he again 
sold half interest to B. F. Davis, the firm McFarland & Davis 
being the present publishers. 

The Jacksonville Times, published by D. A. McNaughton, had 
a brief existence in the early ’90s. About 1894, S. R. Whitley, 
Sr., published the East Texas Reformer, afterward the Jackson¬ 
ville Reformer. Before the paper was discontinued in 1914, H. W. 
Whitley, C. F. Drake and A. A. Lyford were associated with 
him in the business. After leaving Jacksonville, Drake was 
connected with the Manufacturers’ Record of Baltimore. 

In the beginning the Reformer was a Populist paper. Preceding 
it two other Populist papers had a brief existence. The 
Cherokee News was suspended after thirteen weeks. In 1894 the 
Sun was reported appearing semi-occasionally. 

The first daily newspaper, the Jacksonville Journal, made its 
initial appearance June 15, 1903. A. K. Dixon was editor. Its 
life was limited to weeks. In 1904, J. E. McFarland published 
the Daily Banner. He, too, found the town too small to support 
a daily. The Banner failed to survive its first birthday. In June, 
1909, Roy Phillips and Gus Mecklin, two transient printers, 
ventured starting the Daily Progress. After several changes in 
ownership S. R. Whitley, Jr., sold it to McFarland & Davis in 
1918. Since then it has been the daily edition of the weekly 
Cherokee County Banner. In September, 1933, Whitley estab¬ 
lished the Jacksonville Daily News. 

In recent years the Newburn Sanitarium and the Nan Travis 
Memorial Hospital have gained for Jacksonville wide recognition 
as a hospital center. 6 

The past twenty-five years have been characterized by growth 
which not even the depression following the Wall Street crash 
in 1929 could stop. Outstanding features of the past five-year 
building program have been the city hall, the Williamson Funeral 
Church, the Texas State Bank and the $135,000 post office. In 
1933, through the efforts of the Federated Clubs, a public 
library was established. On March 8, 1934, the municipal airport 
was used for the first time, a tri-motored, sixteen-passenger plane 
making the first landing. 

In 1932 Jacksonville celebrated her fiftieth anniversary with 

6 The Nan Travis Hospital was opened as the Cherokee Sanitarium in 1919, 
the name being afterward changed in honor of the mother of Doctor J. M. and 
Doctor R. T. Travis. It is the only hospital in East Texas with A. C. S. 
approval. In addition to some 5,000 emergency and minor injury cases, over 
10,000 patients have been admitted to rooms. 



TOWNS 


139 


the Golden Jubilee. In 1932 she was hostess to the Third District 
Federated Clubs; in 1933 to the Seventh Annual Convention 
of the East Texas Chamber of Commerce. In 1934 she staged 
the first Tomato Festival. 

Among the organizations which have contributed to the city’s 
development have been the Young Men’s Business League of the 
first decade of the century, the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs and 
the Chamber of Commerce, of which W. Y. Forrest is now 
president and C. K. DeBusk secretary. Civic pride is an out¬ 
standing Jacksonville characteristic. 


CHAPTER XV 


Towns —Continued 

LARISSA 

In 1846 a group of Tennesseeans, led by Thomas H. McKee, 
established what became known as McKee Colony in the north¬ 
west part of the county, near the Killough settlement. The follow¬ 
ing year he had a town site laid out on the southwest part of 
the Absalom Gibson survey, some five miles west of the present 
Mt. Selman. His son, Reverend T. N. McKee, gave it a name, the 
Greek word Larissa, prophetic of the high ideals which charac¬ 
terized its future citizens. Some four years later it was 
incorporated. 

Among Larissa pioneers, widely known for their loyalty to the 
church and their love for education, were the McKees, Newtons, 
Ewings, Erwins, Bones, Campbells, Yoakums, and Longs. 

During its earlier years Larissa rivaled Old Jacksonville as a 
trading center. Christine Rierson, a native of Norway, opened the 
first store. Among other mercantile houses around its public square 
were Dewberry & Johnson, Dunning & McKee, Wadley’s Grocery, 
A. M. Denman, Billik & Westheimer, Clapp & Brown, Barnett 
& Harrington and J. W. Brooks. McKee Inn, operated by S. L. 
McKee, was a noted hotel. The Masonic Lodge (1849) and 
Royal Arch Masons (1852) had strong organizations. The Old 
School and the Cumberland Presbyterians, the Methodists, the 
Baptists and the Christians had churches. The famous Larissa 
College and Stovall Academy, named for Reverend S. K. Stovall, 
made the town an educational center. 

According to local tradition the first match game of baseball 
ever played in Texas was played in Larissa in 1875, Larissa 
defeating Afton Grove. Millard Stevens and C. P. Linder, two 
Alabama settlers, introduced the game in Larissa and other 
Cherokee towns quickly organized teams. 

Despite the loss of population due to the closing of the college 
and the subsequent building of a railroad through Jacksonville, 
Larissa continued its existence until the establishment of Mt. 
Selman. By 1910 the last white man was gone. Today the popu- 

140 


TOWNS (Continued) 


141 


lation consists largely of the descendants of old slaves, many 
of them occupying the decaying homes of former masters. No 
modern map even lists the aristocratic old town. Each August, 
however, ex-Larissonians and their descendants come together 
in a grove near the town site for one day of happy reminiscence. 
The spirit of Larissa is immortal. 

TALLADEGA 

Talladega was located just south of Larissa on the James 
Cobb survey. The chronology of the founding of the two towns 
is a matter of disagreement. One group maintains that Larissa 
was established because the staunch Presbyterians in the 
neighborhood disapproved of the sale of whiskey in Talladega. 
The other holds that when the McKees refused to sell a lot for 
a saloon in Larissa, Talladega was established to kill it. Whatever 
their relation may have been, Talladega’s life radiated about its 
saloon, gambling hall and race-track. 

According to tradition, Jesse Duren, the notorious land specu¬ 
lator who promoted the town, offered a lot to any one who would 
build on it. The population grew rapidly but the rowdy element 
drove the trade to Larissa. After a brief period of rivalry Talla¬ 
dega gave up the race. By 1852 it had disappeared. 

MT. SELMAN 

In 1884 four Larissa citizens—Doctor R. D. Bone, J. W. 
Wade, W. T. and J. N. McKee—bought homesteads on the newly- 
built railroad, now the Cotton Belt, and called the settlement 
Selman for Doctor Selman, the former owner of the land. Later 
the Post Office Department changed it to Mt. Selman. The 
McKees opened the first store, moving their business from 
Larissa. Among other early citizens were T. Carlton (also a 
merchant), E. R. Alexander, G. A. McKee, T. L. Wade, R. W. 
Shamblin, J. S. Matkin and Alf Long. Later business firms 
included Dublin Brothers, Burton & Newton and the C. H. 
Edwards Drug Store. Two disastrous fires have swept the town, 
the first causing frame buildings to be replaced by brick business 
houses, the last destroying the bricks. The Baptists, Methodists 
and Presbyterians now have churches. Mt. Selman was long a 
leading peach and tomato shipping center. 

KNOXVILLE 

A second group of Tennesseeans, settling in the northeast part 
of the county, on the Engledow survey, in the late ’40s, named 


142 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


the village, which soon sprang into existence, Knoxville, in honor 
of a home-state city. Thomas Norman, grandfather of W. T. 
Norman, Rusk attorney, owned the land upon which was surveyed 
the town site later to become one of the important pre-railroad 
towns. Among other prominent residents of Knoxville were W. A. 
Pope and A. Carmichael, Norman’s partners in the promotion of 
lot sales; Thomas Bell, W. G. Engledow (captain of a company in 
Confederate service), James H. Salmon, William P. Henry, 
F. R. Gilbert, W. S. Maris, A. J. and D. D. Coupland, James 
Childers, Joel Cross, M. V. Shaw and James Rountree. Among 
its merchants were F. R. Gilbert, Buggs & Eidom, and Cameron 
& Pope, afterwards Pope & Gready. In 1853 the old Carmichael 
voting precinct was changed to Knoxville. After some three 
decades of activity, the town was dealt a fatal blow by the 
establishment of Troup on the new International Railroad. W. A. 
Pope was the last merchant to give up the fight and move to the 
rival town. Only the cemetery is left to mark the deserted site. 

GRIFFIN 

In the early ’50s, on the northeast corner of the I. Kendrick 
league, the town of Griffin was flourishing. By 1854 it had become 
a voting precinct. Judging from the number of deeds executed, 
I. T. Kendrick must have been the town site promoter. Its chief 
store was operated by Comer, Fariss & Dial, as one in their chain 
of Cherokee County stores. Although the Griffin post office 
existed until the present century, official records of the late ’80s 
refer to the “old town of Griffin.” Evidently Knoxville competi¬ 
tion had proved too strong. During the early part of the present 
century, however, Griffin was a flourishing community centering 
around its school. 

Among the citizens of its heyday were the Quaides, Kendricks, 
O’Hairs, Flowers, Jennings, Martins, Dodsons, Greadys, Dutys, 
Evans, and Jones. John B. Kendrick, whose colorful career as 
cattle king, state senator, governor and United States senator 
in his adopted state of Wyoming, attracted nation-wide attention, 
was born near Griffin, September 6, 1857. 

LONE STAR 

Lone Star, first burdened with the much less pleasing name 
of “Skin Tight,” dates its existence from the early ’80s when H. 
L. Reeves, allegedly a skinner, established its first store. Among 
its influential pioneers were the Dolbys, Tiptons, Pierces, Con¬ 
ners, Morrises, McCrimmons, Balls, Drakes, Cleavers and Blacks. 


TOWNS (Continued) 


143 


In its heyday it had five or more stores, three churches, a lodge and 
the Lone Star Institute, a school of more than local prominence. 
Today Scott Arnwine owns its only store. Like many another 
once thriving business town, it was ruined by a new railroad rival 
—Ponta. 


PONTA 

Ponta had its beginning in 1901 in the would-be village of 
Donoho, so named because of its location on the Donoho survey. 
When the final survey of the Texas and New Orleans Railroad 
missed Donoho, L. D. and W. T. Guinn, together with W. T. 
Norman, promoted the present town site, first named Hubb for 
Hubbard Guinn, the surveyor, and afterward changed to Ponta. 

Pioneer families in the Ponta territory included the Dalbys, 
Jones, Baileys, Montgomerys, Summers, and Bowlings. E. P. 
Dalby opened the first store. He was soon followed by D. T. 
Applewhite, Robert Montgomery, who moved his business from 
Donoho, C. S. Bolton and Tipton & Adams. Among the town’s 
colorful characters was John Atchinson, who for more than two 
decades supplied picnic and fishing parties on Stafford Lake with 
boats. Ponta business and professional men of today include 
A. R. Redden, J. L. Bailey, W. G. Waldrop, C. W. Darby, M. V. 
Sessions, Jerry Liles, B. H. Everett and Doctor P. E. Jones. The 
town has three churches, a Masonic Lodge and a five-teacher 
school. When the timber business was at its peak, Ponta was 
a leading shipping point. In recent years plant farms have effected 
a significant increase in its volume of business. 

REKLAW 

Reklaw, which bears the surname of the owner of the town site, 
Margaret L. Walker, spelled in reverse order, was established as 
a result of the building of the Texas and New Orleans Railroad. 
In 1908 it was made a voting precinct. Among the early citizens 
were the Gilbreaths, Irwins, Talleys, Avaras, Russells, DeVaneys, 
and Richeys. J. B. Parnell had the first store. John Irwin soon 
followed. Its 1934 merchants include V. M. Holmes, S. P. 
Holmes, W. G. Weatherby, Tom Summers, and F. C. Steagall. 
The town has three churches and a six-teacher school. 

SUMMERFIELD 

Pioneers in the Summerfield neighborhood, whose coming ante¬ 
dates the establishment of the town by several decades, include the 
Dotsons, Dodsons, Tennisons, Gills, Fullertons, Sowells, Dick- 


144 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


sons, Nicholsons, Tiptons, Summers and Truitts. The town of 
Summerfield, named for the Summers family, owners of the site, 
dates from the late ’90s when Isaac W. Tipton opened the first 
store. He was also the first postmaster. In 1934, Summerfield 
business men include E. M. Nicholson, T. J. Heath, A. G. Tipton, 
A. Dickson, J. T. Darby, Ted Stovall and Clyde Richardson. 
A nine-teacher school, housed in a modern brick building, is the 
pride of the community. Three churches also play an important 
role in community life. The Methodist Church, a brick building, 
is the descendant of the pioneer Union Chapel Church, located 
a mile southwest of Summerfield. Recently opened highways have 
brought new life to the town. 

TURNEY 

Turney, established about 1903 on the newly-built Texas and 
New Orleans Railroad, was named for J. A. Turney, the pioneer 
settler who promoted it. Among other pioneers already living in 
the neighborhood were the Priestleys, Flings, Hendersons, 
Jenkins, Coles, Arnwines, Slovers, Morrows, Evans and Chand¬ 
lers. Matt Chandler operated a mill near the town for almost half 
a century. The Peacock crate and basket factory is older than the 
town itself, having been started in the near-by woods as the Slover 
Crate Factory. I. A. Bounds is the oldest merchant, having sold 
goods since 1904. Early firms included J. E. Herrington, and 
Slover & Son. The Baptists have the only church in the town. 

GALLATIN 

After donating switching ground to the Texas and New 
Orleans Railroad, J. W. and Miss S. A. Chandler had a town site 
surveyed on their adjacent land in 1901. Asked to name the new 
town, C. H. Martin, a Rusk attorney, chose the name of his native 
Tennessee town, Gallatin. Two stores were opened before the rail¬ 
road was completed: Hood Melton, drugs; and J. W. Chandler, 
drygoods. S. A. Jenkins, J. E. Turney and S. G. Odom & Com¬ 
pany were also early merchants, the last two still being in business. 
J. A. Garner opened his hardware store some twenty years ago. 
The town has three churches, their sites being donated by the 
Chandlers. The Gallatin school was the first consolidated school 
in the county, the Gallatin district the first independent rural 
district. Although the town itself is relatively new, the Gallatin 
section had settlers before the county was organized. Among the 
pioneers were the Jenkins, Henrys, Bridges, Davises, Taylors, 
Van Zandts and Thompsons. 


TOWNS (Continued) 


145 


In 1928 a Gallatin farmer, J. D. Dickinson, brought distinction 
to Cherokee County by winning first prize at the International 
Grain Show for the best five ears of corn. 

CRAFT 

The first station established on the Kansas and Gulf Short 
Line Railroad south of Jacksonville in the early ’80s was origi¬ 
nally called Independence, the name the early settlers in the 
section had given their community. Thomas Craft opened the 
first store and, in his honor, the name was soon changed. Among 
other pioneers were the Thompsons, Taylors, Rosses, Rudes, 
Felps, Dicks, Meadors, Caseys, Jarratts, Goodsons, Aults, and 
Walkers. C. A. Walker cleared the first farm in the community. 
Craft merchants included P. H. Morton, Will Lunsford, C. Haws, 
and W. S. Ault. The Ault store, occupying the old frame school- 
house, now has the business field to itself. The Baptist Church and 
a modern brick school building complete the “town.” 

In 1889 the alleged discovery of gold by two transients claiming 
to be old miners created wild excitement among Craft citizens. 
One farmer is said to have refused five hundred dollars an acre 
for his land before geologists punctured the bubble. The miners 
slipped away. 

The next decade, however, brought real gold in the form of 
fruit. In 1897 the first car of tomatoes ever shipped from Texas 
went from Craft. For the next few years it was the state’s chief 
tomato center. 1 

DIALVILLE 

Dialville, first called Dial, was named for J. J. Dial, a pioneer 
settler who donated the town site. Comer, Fariss & Dial opened 
the first store about 1882. Some four years later the failure of 
their chain of five stores scattered through the county left Dial¬ 
ville merely a flag-station until it took a fresh start, about 1902, 
with the opening of the John Bailey store. Among other early 
merchants were Miller & Meazles, Odom & Odom, P. B. Harris, 
and W. F. Jones. Other pioneer settlers in the Dialville section 
included the Dements, Lindseys, Moores, McKnights, Ackers, 
Thomasons, Durrets, Cribbs, Halberts, Johnstons, Burnetts, 
Sides, Glasses, Grishams, and Dovers. 

Two newspapers had brief careers. The Dialville News, estab¬ 
lished by W. M. Ellis of Rusk in 1913, with Will T. Read as 


x Two Craft schoolboys, Earl Morton and J. C. Ross, Jr., furnished material 
for this sketch. 



146 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


publisher, was soon sold to Clyde Ratcliff, formerly connected 
with Ratcliff and Alto papers. A little later Ed Scott became 
editor. In 1920, Charles Benge was gaining wide comment by his 
editorials in the Dialville Searchlight. In its heyday the town had 
a bank, a band and a picture show. 

Following Craft’s lead in tomato culture Dialville has been for 
many years an important shipping center. Earlier it was one of 
the leaders in the peach industry. 

Today Dialville has seven stores, three churches, including the 
old Rocky Springs Church, and a consolidated ten-teacher school. 
Doctor J. W. Moore has been a practicing physician for thirty- 
five years. 


PINE TOWN, JAVA AND GHENT 

Three communities went into the making of Maydelle—Pine 
Town, some three and one-half miles southwest; Java, about two 
and one-half miles south; and Ghent, around two miles north of 
the present Maydelle. 

Pine Town, located in a virgin pine area, existed in the middle 
’40s. The name, however, was partially a misnomer. The com¬ 
munity had neither store nor church. Later it became a station 
on the stage line between Rusk and Palestine but its citizens con¬ 
tinued to worship at Mt. Comfort Church near by and haul 
supplies from distant stores. Among prominent Pine Town settlers 
were the Pardews, Beards, Nortons, Broomes, Ballews, Camp¬ 
bells, and Crumes. In 1866, Mrs. N. C. Crume was postmistress. 
Community life centered in the A. Jackson Masonic Lodge and 
the school. In the ’70s the excellent Pine Town school was the 
educational center for the surrounding territory. Among its 
teachers were P. Williams, Joab Moore, J. H. Cannon, and Miss 
Maggie Taylor. The present Maydelle precinct is the old Pine 
Town voting box established at James Beard’s house in 1848 and 
changed to Pine Town in 1850. 

Java dates from the late ’80s. According to a story told to J. L. 
Brown of Jacksonville while on a fishing trip on the Neches 
River in the ’90s, a young lady’s loss of her petticoat at a com¬ 
munity ball supplied the name. Still visible lettering proclaimed 
the garment was originally a Java coffee sack. The post office, 
established while the lady’s misfortune was a current topic, was 
called Java. Wayne Watson was Java’s only merchant, the lack 
of business establishments gaining the nickname, “Needmore.” 
After the railroad was built Java was moved to Pine Town. 

The naming of Ghent, credited both to W. S. Branhan and 


TOWNS (Continued) 


147 


Doctor Scurlock, for the Belgium city gives further proof of the 
cultural note in pioneer life. 2 Branhan had the first store. In the 
’80s, Ezell, McCracken & Company was the leading firm. The 
post office was in their store, J. L. McCracken being postmaster. 
Among other merchants in the ’80s and ’90s were Russell S. 
Starkey, Charles Benge, Montgomery & Sherman (Frank) and 
Doctor Scurlock. Among Ghent teachers in later years were 
Walter Whitman and Miss Birdie Branhan, now Mrs. Alvin 
Sherman of Rusk. 

MAYDELLE 

Although the town itself is little more than two decades old, 
the Maydelle section had settlers in the ’40s. Among its pioneers 
were the Herndons, Odoms, McCrackens, Meadors, Allens, 
Dendys, Brigmans, Wallaces, Balls, Shermans, Roaches, Watsons, 
Boltons, Moores, and Poseys. 

Visioning the possibilities of a town on the State Railroad, 
supported by the truck and sawmill industries developing in the 
adjacent territory, C. D. Jarratt, N. A. (Jack) Slover and J. S. 
Sherman, in 1910, bought five hundred acres of state-owned land 
and announced the opening of a town. A formal lot sale was 
unnecessary. Before the survey could be completed, two-thirds 
of them were sold and buildings were , under construction. The 
name, Maydelle, was given in honor of Governor Campbell’s 
daughter. 

Jim Holsomback opened the first store, a drug store now run 
by his widow. J. A. Arnwine, J. W. Russell, and Lively & Son, 
all general merchants, soon followed. J. S. Sherman, present mer¬ 
chant and postmaster, began business in 1913 by the purchase 
of the Russell stock. As the sawmill and truck industries declined, 
Maydelle business suffered. In 1934 the town has seven stores, 
two churches (Baptist and Methodist), Masonic and Woodman 
lodges, and an excellent school system resulting from the con¬ 
solidation of the Maydelle, Pine Town and Ghent districts. 

CUNEY 

Cuney, a negro town on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, 
was promoted by Dennis Thomas, who saw in it an opportunity 
for providing his people with a better market. It was named for 
Cuney Price, the son of a Palestine negro real estate dealer who 
assisted Thomas in the establishment of the town. Cotton farming 


2 According to another tradition, the name originated in the salutation, 
“Howdy, Gent.” 



148 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


has been the chief source of wealth. Thomas was the first mer¬ 
chant. The town now has four stores, two lodges, two churches 
and a five-teacher school. Its pioneer settlers include the Sneeds, 
Burwell, and Braggs. 

In addition to the town of Cuney there are in the county a num¬ 
ber of prosperous negro communities. Among these are Shady 
Grove, “Ellum” Grove, Woodville, Pine Hill and New Hope. 

REESE 

In 1895, Miss Angie Lane was appointed postmistress of a new 
office just east of the present Reese for which, in order to prevent 
its being named for herself, she suggested the name Andy, in 
honor of A. J. (Andy) Chessher, then the Jacksonville post¬ 
master. When the Texas and New Orleans Railroad built a switch 
called Reese, in honor of Reese Lloyd, a conductor on its line, 
John H. Henderson, who had succeeded Miss Lane as postmaster, 
had the name of the office changed to Reese. Henderson also pro¬ 
moted a town site around the new station. Among the early Reese 
merchants were John Plair and Etheridge & Owens. Today J. J. 
Larson has the only store. Among other pioneer families in the 
Reese neighborhood were the Mitchells, Dodsons, Smiths, 
Lewises, Murrays, Russells, Pinsons, Coates, Reeves, and Liles. 

TECULA 

In 1875, Galusha A. Grow, president of the International and 
Great Northern Railroad Company, established the station, Rey¬ 
nolds, which proved a great convenience to the pioneer settlers 
in the neighborhood, including the Rosses, Pierces, Hensleys, 
Alexanders, Burns, Stocktons, Northcutts, Dutys, McKinleys, 
Clarkes, and Adams. When the post office was established, L. E. 
Burns was made postmaster. Among early merchants were John 
Boone, Joe McKinley, Riley Pierce, and T. A. Herring. In 1913 
the town was almost destroyed by fire. The post office was dis¬ 
continued for some years and when it was reestablished the name 
had to be changed, another Reynolds having come into existence 
during the interval. The Post Office Department chose Tecula. 
J. T. Waites is the only merchant in 1934. Howard Clark has 
a filling station. The Baptist and Methodists have churches and 
a six-teacher school serves the community. 

IRONTON 

C. H. Martin, immigration agent for the International and 
Great Northern Railroad Company, promoted the Ironton town 


TOWNS (Continued) 


149 


site. The near-by ruins of the old Chapel Hill Manufacturing 
Company’s iron plant suggested the name. Among the pioneers 
living in the section prior to the establishment of the town were 
the Barnes, Benges, Pritchetts, and Hardaways. Among early 
merchants were T. F. Prigmore, C. C. Brittain, J. W. Patton, 
and W. B. Bates. W. J. Pool was the first postmaster. Doctor 
J. M. Brittain was a pioneer physician. In 1905, Martin donated 
the site for the “Town Hall of Ironton, to be used for preaching, 
public speaking, union meetings and a school.” Today the town 
has one store, two churches and a five-teacher school. 

FOREST 

Although the present town of Forest dates from the building 
of the railroad in the middle ’80s, the original Forest, located 
about three-fourths of a mile to the west, existed before the Civil 
War. According to tradition, a traveler stopped under a tree. 
When asked why he stopped he answered, “For rest!” His expla¬ 
nation of his presence gave rise to the name “Forest.” Wylie 
Thompson was the only merchant in the village, his store being 
the voting place for the precinct and also the post office. Mail, 
however, was extremely uncertain. The negro carrier rode a most 
temperamental mule. There was also a gin and a mill, both run 
by water. Among the earliest settlers were the Carrs, Dials, and 
Burkes. 

The Grange opened the first store in the present town. Dick 
Durham, the first postmaster, bought it. In 1888, J. S. Derrough, 
Jeff Latham and Hugh Henry donated a lot for a school and 
a church. Three stores, one church building, which houses two 
congregations, and a five-teacher school serve Forest citizens in 
1934. Miller Dial is postmaster. 

WELLS 

In 1885, Major E. H. Wells and the Kansas and Gulf Short 
Line Railroad Company established a town on the new railroad, 
named Wells for the Major, who was a railroad engineer. Thus 
pioneer settlers in the section, including the Bowmans, Chapmans, 
Spinks, Humphreys, Odoms, Rozelles, Falveys, Warners, Rawls, 
Goodwins, Baileys, and Simpsons, were furnished a closer market. 

Among the early merchants were John Bailey, William Herring¬ 
ton, W. H. Spinks, Kemp Davidson, and Winsel Hilencamp, who 
moved his business from Cheeseland in Angelina County. The 
first hotel proprietor, W. A. Smith, soon sold to J. A. Brewer. 
For some thirty years Doctor J. C. Falvey served the community. 


150 A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Today Doctor J. L. Dubose is the only physician. Among pres¬ 
ent merchants, J. N. Shamass, B. H. Bowman and Rube Sessions 
have the longest service records. The town now has sixteen busi¬ 
ness houses, a thirteen-teacher school and two churches. The 
Methodist Church is the pioneer Mt. Hope Church. For a quarter 
of a century J. R. Oliver has distributed Wells mail. 

Those other communities not dignified by the name of ‘‘town/’ 
yet forming one of the most important bases for the county's 
continued existence, include so many that the author hesitates to 
mention them for fear some may be omitted. Most of them have 
for a nucleus the church and schoolhouse which are always the 
focal point of American pioneer and rural life. One of the oldest 
is Sardis, originally settled by a band of South Carolinians, includ¬ 
ing the Berrys, Martins, Colemans, Nickersons, and Jennings, and 
noted for its community spirit and singing schools. Another is 
Atoy, settled in the '40s by the Hatchetts, Looneys, Jacobs, 
Manesses, Sessions, and Ashmores. The list also includes Central 
High, Primrose, Barsola, Bulah, Salem, Redlawn, Lone Oak, 
Mt. Hope, Emmaus, Mixon, Corine, Concord, Holcomb, Oak¬ 
land, Blackjack, Cove Springs, Henry's Chapel, and Campground. 


CHAPTER XVI 


Two Governor Sons 

Cherokee soldiers have served in the front ranks, winning 
special citation for bravery; Cherokee financiers and statesmen 
have occupied high positions of honor and of trust. For almost 
ninety years the county has contributed her full quota to the 
roster of famous folk. With justifiable pride her citizens watch 
the anniversaries come and go, each generation lengthening the 
list of Cherokeeans who have worthily achieved in their chosen 
fields. 

At the head of the roster stand her two governor sons. By 
strange coincidence, the first two native governors of Texas were 
born on Cherokee soil—“Tom Campbell on one hill and Jim Hogg 
on another hill, on opposite sides of Rusk,” to quote Governor 
Campbell. Although their term of residence was short, James 
Stephen Hogg and Thomas Mitchell Campbell have ineffaceably 
written into the history of Texas the names of Rusk and Cherokee 
County. A detailed chronicle of their careers is beyond the scope 
of this volume, but a few facts may be recorded. 

In 1848, General Joseph Lewis Hogg, already prominent in 
the political affairs of his adopted state, established his family 
at Mountain Home, a plantation one and one-half miles north¬ 
east of Rusk. 1 

Six years later the young Thomas D. Campbell migrated from 
Alabama, settling five miles southwest of Rusk. Into both homes 
came baby boys—James Stephen Hogg, the youngest of his 
family, born March 24, 1851; Thomas Mitchell Campbell, the first 
child in his family, born a little more than five years later, April 
22, 1856. When Tom was three the Campbells moved, then to 
Jacksonville, later to Longview, but he attended school in Rusk. 

As boys of six and eleven, both children watched their fathers 
ride away to war. Tom’s father returned, but General Hogg fell 

Joseph L. Hogg settled in Nacogdoches in 1839. In 1843-44 he represented 
his district in the Eighth Congress at Washington-on-the-Brazos. In 1845 he 
was a delegate to the Annexation Convention. Elected state senator in 1846, he 
resigned to lead the Texas troops in the Mexican War. After his return he was 
re-elected to the senate. 


151 



152 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


victim to disease before reaching the battlefield. In 1863 both 
lads lost their mothers. Mr. Campbell, however, married again. 
In later years Governor Campbell delighted to pay tribute to his 
stepmother’s teaching as the source of all that was finest in his 
character. 

Both Campbell and Hogg were students in the Rusk Male and 
Female Academy. Both took music and appeared in public recitals 
at the annual school exhibitions. After school hours Jim Hogg 
worked as printer’s devil. Campbell also attended the Rusk 
Masonic Institute and had one year in Trinity University. 

Surviving classmates still recall many an amusing incident of 
those Rusk years before fame came. Tom Campbell, to quote his 
own verdict, was the proverbial bad boy. A favorite story deals 
with an April Fool prank in which he and his cronies took the 
big bell from the belfry. Grave were official deliberations. Expul¬ 
sion was in the offing. Even the school board appeared upon the 
scene. But, happily for the culprits, one august member cast his 
eye on the stumpy campus. The sentence was fixed at hard labor 
—pulling stumps. 

Jim Hogg, likewise, had his troubles. On a certain Friday after¬ 
noon he and Ben Wade were scheduled to deliver orations. For 
days Jim had slipped away to the woods to practice. Each time 
Ben had followed secretly, not only memorizing Hogg’s oration 
but acquiring all his mannerisms. Friday came. Wade, called on 
first, gave the oration in true Hogg style. At last Jim’s turn came. 
He stood up, explained his predicament, and vowed never again 
to plan to deliver an oration originating in another man’s brain. 
Thus the future orator made his first extemporaneous speech. 

Although financial reverses in both families hindered college 
education, ambition was not to be thwarted. After leaving Rusk 
each read law and was admitted to the bar—James Stephen Hogg 
in 1874, Thomas Mitchell Campbell in 1878; the former in Quit- 
man, the latter in Longview. At this point their paths diverge. 

Beginning his public career as justice of the peace at Quitman, 
James S. Hogg reached the governor’s chair through a series 
of increasingly responsible elective offices. Until elected governor 
of his state, Thomas M. Campbell’s only digression from private 
law practice was a period of service as general manager of the 
International and Great Northern Railroad Company. 

On April 19, 1890, in a masterful speech before a great throng 
in his native town, Jim Hogg opened his gubernatorial campaign 
on the issue of the rights of the common man versus the monopoly 
and extortion of the railroads, such rights to be protected by a 













































































































































































WINES. 

Sahterue- }• 

Clnret. }• 

Champagoe ^ 


BHNQUeT 

-TO- 

foyernor parties s j£ogg 
Hew Birmingham. -July I6lh, 1891 


POT AGE. 

Mock Turtle. 

POrSSON. 

Baked Red Kish, Mashed Potatoes. 

RELEVE. 

Saddle of Lamb, Mushrooms. 
ENTREES. 

Broiled Spring Chicken, French Peas. 

ROTE 

Venison, Jelly. Saratoga Chips. 

SALA DE. 

Tomatoes, Mayonnaise. 

DESSERT. 

Ices, Fancy Cake, Fruit* 

Cheese. 

CAFE NOIR. 

A poUina ds. Cigo rs. 

Reverse., 







#*****'X *****•**■**•*#•*■ 


Grace—Rev. T. Ward White, D D. 

Welcoming .Address. 

h Texas, Past, Present and Future—Response 

Gov. J. Hogg. 

2. The Advantages of Foreign Capital and Genius, in Mate¬ 
rial Development and Advancement in the South-Re¬ 
sponse 

Judge L. Wallach, New York 

3. Manufacturing in Texas from the Natural Raw Material 
and the Profitable Result—Response 

Gov, R. 1C Hubbard. 


4. New Birmingham as it was, as it is, and must he-— Re¬ 
sponse 

Gen. .Tno. M. Claiborne. 

5. Pioneers in Texas 1831 ami 181)1—Response 

Hon. Geo. W. Smith. 

0. The Press-and its Influence for Good in the Develop¬ 
ment of the Country—Response 

Hon N. G. Kitreii. 

7 Immigration—Res|K>MHe 

Hon. R. H. Kiugsbury. 






♦ 

















































































































































































TWO GOVERNOR SONS 


153 


commission placing restraining hands on these public carriers. For 
two terms in the governor’s chair he fearlessly waged his battle 
in behalf of the people. Outstanding among his achievements 
were the Railroad Commission and the Alien Land Law. 

In 1906, the year of Ex-Governor Hogg’s death, Thomas 
Campbell was called from his law practice in Palestine to fill the 
same high position on a platform largely embracing the Hogg 
policies—economy in government, better rural schools and opposi¬ 
tion to the “selfish interests.” Among the significant laws of his 
two terms were the Robertson Law regulating life insurance com¬ 
panies, the Bank Guaranty Law and the regulation of fire insur¬ 
ance rates. After retiring from the governor’s chair Mr. Camp¬ 
bell returned to his Palestine law office. Death came in April, 1923. 

Thus passed Cherokee’s governor sons, both numbered among 
the great of Texas. 


APPENDIX 


Representative Pioneers 

To even enumerate all the pioneer settlers who contributed to 
the development of Cherokee County is a task too extensive for 
this volume. To conserve space and permit the maximum number 
of brief biographies, data, for the most part, is given in “Who’s 
Who” style. While the author has tried to include representative 
families from different sections of the county, she realizes that 
many whose names do not appear have just as much claim to our 
appreciation. In some cases authentic biographical data could not 
be obtained. Always choice has been difficult. 

Aber, Edgar —Born in New York, April 4, 1852; went to Michi¬ 
gan at the age of eighteen, in a sailboat of his own making, and 
became a cabinet-maker; married Katherine Haberle, 1878, and 
moved to Griffin, Cherokee County; settled in Jacksonville, 1890, 
and established a brick plant; the state’s pioneer basket and crate 
manufacturer; recognized as one of the builders of Jacksonville; 
moved to St. Joe, Michigan, 1904; died at St. Joe, December 21, 
1926. Frank Aber, a son, still lives in Jacksonville. 

Acker, Joseph P.—Born in Alabama, April 18, 1843; served 
in the Confederate army under General Stonewall Jackson and 
General Robert E. Lee; married Mrs. Annie R. Jenkins, October 
18, 1866; settled in the Providence community, five miles south 
of Jacksonville, 1870, where he lived until his death, March 18, 
1925. A son, S. E. Acker, lives in Jacksonville. A grandson, T. E. 
Acker, is the present mayor of Jacksonville. 

Alexander, Isaac —Born Lebanon, Virginia, July 24, 1832; 
graduated from Emory and Henry College, 1854; licensed as a 
Methodist minister at Henderson, Texas, 1854; established Alex¬ 
ander Institute (now Lon Morris College at Jacksonville) at 
Kilgore in 1873 and served as president until 1890; chaplain at 
A. and M. College; died at Henderson, June 5, 1919; as an edu¬ 
cator and as a pastor at Jacksonville and other East Texas towns 
he left a lasting impress on his generation. 

154 


APPENDIX A 


155 


Bagley, J. E.—Born in Mississippi, August 12, 1845; emigrated 
to Texas, 1856; moved to Rusk after three years of Confederate 
service; married Miss Mary Smith, 1869; as a Rusk merchant 
for nearly thirty years he contributed his share to the town’s 
development; died in Rusk, 1914. A son, J. E. Bagley, Jr., is 
a sawmill operator in the Rusk territory. 

Beall, J. F.—Born in Georgia, November 24, 1847; as a stu¬ 
dent in the Georgia Military Institute enlisted in Confederate 
service; left war-torn Georgia to settle in Carthage, Texas, 1871, 
where he studied law; secretary of the senate during the Richard 
Coke administration; married Miss Cordelia Peacock of Rusk, 
1874, to which union four children were born; practiced law in 
Fort Worth in pre-railroad days; moved to Rusk in 1878, con¬ 
tinuing law practice until his retirement; one of Cherokee 
County’s pioneer oil promoters; died in Rusk, 1934, shortly 
before he would have celebrated his sixtieth wedding anniversary. 
Mrs. Beall still survives him. One son, J. L. Beall, is also a Rusk 
citizen. 

Bolton, Canada —Born in Alabama, 1820; served in campaign 
against the Seminoles in Florida; married Miss Susanna Rose¬ 
mary Slaton, to which union eleven children were born, eight 
living to be grown; settled in Cherokee County, near Antioch, 
1849; moved to Jacksonville, 1872; recognized as one of the 
“makers of Jacksonville.” Three of his sons, with a combined 
age of two hundred and forty-six years, make Jacksonville their 
home. B. R. Bolton has attained prominence as a Methodist min¬ 
ister. As merchants, bank officials, stockholders in organizations 
designed for community progress and as school trustees, John H. 
and W. C. Bolton have added their share to the development of 
the city. Both have been large donors to Lon Morris College. 

Bonner, Micajah Hubbard —Born at Greenville, Alabama, 
January 25, 1828, son of William N. Bonner, a Methodist min¬ 
ister ; admitted to the bar in Mississippi, 1848; emigrated to Texas, 
1849; married Miss Elizabeth Patience Taylor at Marshall, 1849; 
bridal tour was a horseback trip to their new home at Rusk; 
formed a law partnership with J. Pinckney Henderson, which 
lasted until the latter’s election to the U. S. Senate, 1857; later 
his brother, F. W. Bonner, was his partner; special counselor for 
the Confederate government; by petition of its lawyers, was 
appointed judge of the old Seventh District, 1873, and moved 


156 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


to Tyler; continued to hold this position until became Chief 
Justice, 1878; retired from Supreme Court, 1882; died in Tyler, 
November 28, 1883. 

Boyd, John A.—Born in Tennessee, April 18, 1838; moved to 
Rusk, 1849; enlisted in Confederate service as member of Com¬ 
pany C, Third Texas Cavalry; later a member of General Joseph 
L. Hogg’s staff; long-time Rusk merchant. 

Brown, William Allen— Born of southern parentage in Illi¬ 
nois, July 12, 1841; served four years in Confederate artillery; 
married Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Dixon in Arkansas, 1866, to which 
union four sons were born; settled near old Larissa, 1871; em¬ 
ployed as clerk for Clapp & Brown, 1872-74, first in Larissa, 
afterward in Jacksonville; as a Jacksonville merchant, 1874-1933, 
he contributed to every worthy enterprise connected with the 
development of his city; honored by a public service on his nine¬ 
tieth birthday; died April 9, 1933. His only surviving son, J. L. 
Brown, is a prominent Jacksonville merchant, church and civic 
leader. 

Cannon, Benjamin B.—A native of Tennessee; schoolmate and 
life-long friend of Sam Houston; married Miss Eliza Tunwell, 
to which union six children were born; settled in Rusk, 1847, and 
began to practice law; Grand Master of the Masonic lodge; 
elected one of the Cherokee representatives to the 4th Legisla¬ 
ture; died on the way to San Augustine to organize a Masonic 
council, 1853. One son, B. B. Cannon, Jr., was a prosperous mer¬ 
chant, first in Rusk and later in Jacksonville. 

Chessher, Mrs. Melvina— Born Melvina Ingle at Jasper, Ala¬ 
bama, November 21, 1833; parents moved to Mississippi when 
she was four; married Hugh Francis, 1853, and settled near 
Jacksonville the next year; with the exception of one year at 
Garden Valley, has lived in the Jacksonville vicinity ever since; 
husband died, 1855; married a second time to David N. George, 
who was killed in Confederate service; married A. J. Chessher, 
1864; again left a window, 1889; to these unions five children 
were born, three of whom survive; operated a Jacksonville hotel 
for fifteen years, entertaining many distinguished guests; in 
recent years has twice suffered a broken hip and kept her courage; 
now makes her home with her son, A. J. Chessher, her dauntless 
spirit still a marvel to those who know her. 








William A. Brown George A. Newton 






























































' 

















. 




























APPENDIX A 


157 


Claiborne, John M.—Born in Bastrop County, Texas, Febru¬ 
ary 27, 1839; educated at Baylor University at Independence; 
mustered into Confederate service as a member of Company D, 
Terry’s Texas Rangers; member Confederate secret service de¬ 
partment, 1864; made brigadier-general, 1865; Indian agent on 
Texas frontier; major-general of the Texas State Troops, 1884- 
90; member House of Representatives; twice married, first to 
Miss Sue M. Phillips of Kentucky and after her death to Miss 
Ella Holbrook; died April 20, 1909; buried in the Cedar Hill 
cemetery at Rusk. Mrs. Claiborne now lives in Dallas. 

Coupland, Andrew J.—Born near Knoxville, Tennessee, De¬ 
cember 7, 1812; married Miss Mary Elizabeth Miller, June 28, 
1836, to which union eleven children were born; emigrated to 
Cherokee County in 1846 and helped to found the town of Knox¬ 
ville; moved to Rusk in the early ’50s; county surveyor, 1850-54; 
chief justice, 1854-62; tax assessor, 1865; Presbyterian minister 
and member of the board of trustees which secured a charter for 
Larissa College; died August 29, 1874. Of his three surviving 
children only one, B. C. (Uncle Ben) Coupland of Rusk, lives 
in Cherokee County. 

Dial, J. J.—Born in Georgia, November 24, 1842; moved to 
Alabama; entered Confederate service under Captain Ed Bush; 
joined a train of sixty wagons bound for Texas, 1866; located 
in central Cherokee County, where he lived until his death; twice 
married, first to Miss Ida Jones, afterward to Miss Elizabeth 
Boggs; the town of Dialville named in his honor; died November 
24, 1928. A son, Jack Dial, is now a Dialville merchant. 

Dickinson, Eldridge Caleb— Born in Alabama, December 15, 
1846; settled in Cherokee County with his parents, 1851, remain¬ 
ing a citizen until his death; enlisted in Confederate service in 
Baylor’s Regiment; married Miss Carrie A. Summers, February 
16, 1876, to which union seven children were born; leader in the 
county’s horticultural development; one of the promoters of the 
Star and Crescent furnace; attorney at Rusk and New Birming¬ 
ham; died August 26, 1912. Mrs. Dickinson and two daughters, 
Mrs. R. L. Hatchett and Mrs. John S. Wightman, still live in 
Rusk. Another daughter, Mrs. Sunshine Dickinson Ryman of 
Houston, has gained recognition as a poet. 

Donley, Stockton P.—Born in Missouri, May 27, 1821; 


158 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


educated in Kentucky; established a law office in Rusk, 1847; 
elected attorney for the Sixth Judicial District, 1853; entered 
Confederate service and was captured at Fort Donelson; member 
Supreme Court, 1866; law partner of Governor O. M. Roberts; 
twice married, first to Miss Judith M. Evans of Marshall and, 
after her death, to Mrs. Emma Slaughter of Tyler; died February 
17, 1871. A son, William E. Donley, lives in Jacksonville. 

Douglas, James Loftin— Born at Selma, Alabama, March 26, 
1852; brought to Texas as an infant, his parents, Joseph P. and 
Anne Douglas, settling near Bullard; moved to Jacksonville about 
1878, becoming a partner in the firm J. P. Douglas & Company; 
afterward became the sole owner of the store which he operated 
until 1930, proving a valuable asset in the development of com¬ 
mercial Jacksonville; married Miss Janie Holt, 1875, of which 
union Mrs. Everett Gragard is the only survivor; married Miss 
Addie Belle Tribble of Rusk, 1881, of which union seven 
children survive—Mrs. E. S. Park, Mrs. Downes Bolton, Mrs. 
J. Q. Adams, Joe P., Haden, H. A. (Jack) Douglas of Jack¬ 
sonville and Doctor J. L. Douglas of Kemp; long-time elder in 
the Presbyterian Church; died, 1933. 

Earle, Martin Luther— Born May 16, 1856, son of James C. 
and Matilda Earle, who settled in the Earle’s Chapel community, 
1848; moved to Jacksonville in 1881 as an employee of the 
Brown & Dixon Dry Goods Company; married Miss Kate 
Slaughter, 1883, to which union three children were born; forty- 
five years in the insurance business; long-time alderman and 
mayor of Jacksonville; a recognized authority on local history; 
died in Jacksonville, December 3, 1932. Two sons, Allen and 
Carl Earle, live in Jacksonville. 

Fisher, Green A.—Born Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, 
December 8, 1807; emigrated to Texas, settling in Angelina 
County, 1853; moved to Alto, 1867, and became one of the lead¬ 
ing merchants; died May 3, 1875. One son, Doctor C. W. Fisher 
(1846-1919), was an Alto citizen for more than half a century. 
In addition to his dental practice, his sawmill and farming inter¬ 
ests, he found time for outstanding civic and religious work. 
Another son, Henry Y. Fisher (1851-1903), established the 
store now operated by his son, R. M. Fisher, and also had exten¬ 
sive sawmill interests at Pollok. Mrs. C. W. Fisher (born Adeline 


APPENDIX A 


159 


McKnight) and Mrs. H. Y. Fisher (born Jessie Noell) still live 
in Alto. 

Gibson, James Polk— Born at Cook’s Fort, June 26, 1845, son 
of Jesse Gibson, long-time county tax assessor-collector; entered 
Confederate service with Thomas E. Hogg in 1863; studied law 
with S. A. Willson and R. H. Guinn; county judge, 1876-82 and 
1900-04; noted figure in the organization of the free school sys¬ 
tem in Cherokee County; assistant superintendent of the Rusk 
penitentiary during the Hogg and Culberson administrations; 
served Rusk as alderman and school trustee; pillar in the Presby¬ 
terian Church; married Miss Jennie Martin, 1872; died in Rusk, 
December 26, 1914. Two sons followed him in the legal pro¬ 
fession, G. W. Gibson now being a Jacksonville and C. F. Gibson 
an Austin attorney. One daughter, Miss May Gibson, is deputy 
county clerk. Another daughter, Miss Ruth Gibson, is a teacher 
in the Rusk schools. Mrs. Gibson is still one of Rusk’s loved 
pioneers. 

Guinn, J. N. B.—Born in Tennessee, 1830; married Susan Ann 
Hampton Burton, to which union eight children were born; 
settled in Alto in 1854, becoming one of its pioneer physicians; 
one of the founders of the Alto school system; a civic leader 
known as the “peacemaker;” died, 1892. One son, E. E. Guinn, 
was surgeon at the East Texas prison during the Culberson 
administration. Only three of Doctor J. N. B. Guinn’s five 
surviving children live in Cherokee County—Mrs. N. G. Agnew 
and Miss Lena Guinn of Alto and John B. Guinn of Jacksonville, 
a lawyer who has served the county as attorney and judge. 

Guinn, Robert Henry —Born in Tennessee, January 19, 1822; 
Andy Johnson, afterward President Andrew Johnson, made his 
first frock coat; married Miss Sarah Hearne, 1846, to which 
union eleven children were born; came to Texas on his bridal trip; 
reached Rusk early in 1847, finding his first night’s lodging in the 
log courthouse; opened law office in Rusk, 1847; state senator, 
1853-66, being regarded as a power in the support of the Con¬ 
federacy ; one of the state’s most distinguished criminal lawyers; 
died while attending court at Homer, Angelina County, January 
18, 1887. Two of his sons also gained distinction as lawyers. 
After serving several terms as county attorney and county judge, 
Frank Benton Guinn, the third son, was elected to the state 
legislature. Among other legislative services, he introduced the 


160 A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


fruit and nursery inspection bill and helped secure the amendment 
legalizing jurors’ fees. Lee D. Guinn, the seventh son, was elected 
judge of the Second Judicial District. Within the past two years 
death has ended both careers. John B. Guinn of Rusk is the only 
one of the three surviving children of R. H. Guinn, who lives in 
Cherokee County. 

Harrison, Samuel Turner— Born in Selma, Alabama, July 
15, 1810; arrived at Cook’s Fort, via ox-wagon, 1855; a year 
later built a plantation home one mile northwest of Alto, where 
his only surviving child, Mrs. M. W. Armstrong, still lives; 
Cherokee County representative in the legislature, 1860-65, mak¬ 
ing the trips to Austin in his buggy; loyal member of the Old 
Palestine church; for many years master of the Alto Grange; 
died at Alto, September 23, 1884. 

Holcomb, Joe and Zack— Born in Scotland, the sons of Hosea 
Holcomb; emigrated to New York, 1800; after residence in 
various states, followed Joe’s oldest son, George Holcomb, to 
Cherokee County, settling near Rusk, 1844; the majority of the 
Holcombs scattered throughout Cherokee County are descendants 
of Joe Holcomb, who married Miss Sallie Creagor of Kentucky. 
Present heads of the Holcomb clan include E. J., Garrett, George, 
Charley, Tobe, and John Holcomb. Pride in the ancient family 
name is an outstanding Holcomb characteristic. Holcombs fought 
at the battle of Hastings and in the Crusades. A Holcomb home 
served as headquarters for General Washington. The annual Hol¬ 
comb reunion held near Alto is a widely heralded event which 
brings hundreds of guests, including Holcombs from other states. 

Huston, George S.—Born October 24, 1858; married Miss 
Frances Amelia Evans, 1880, to which union nine children were 
born; after her death, married Mrs. Mary Cross Shoemaker; 
served his county as commissioner and long-time tax collector; 
mayor of Rusk; civic leader; real estate dealer; deacon in the 
Baptist Church and trustee Rusk College; died May 19, 1930. 
Only one of his four surviving children lives in Cherokee County 
—Mrs. Newton Long of Rusk. Mrs. Huston lives in Jacksonville. 

Jenkins, Greenberry— Born in Fayette County, Alabama, 
1810; settled in Cherokee County, five miles north of Rusk, 1841; 
became a successful planter; twice married, first to Miss Elizabeth 
Medford and, after her death, to Mrs. Mary Evans, to which 


APPENDIX A 


161 


unions fourteen children were born; died December, 1889. One 
son, Douph Jenkins, still lives in the house in which he was born 
seventy-three years ago. Five generations of Jenkins are num¬ 
bered among Cherokee citizens. 

Jennings, Thomas J.—Born in Virginia, October 20, 1801; 
classmate of Jefferson Davis; graduated with first honors at 
Transylvania University, 1825 ; admitted to the bar in Tennessee; 
after spending his first year in Texas at San Augustine, settled 
at Nacogdoches, 1841; married Mrs. Sarah G. Mason, 1844; 
attorney-general, 1852-56; retired to plantation near Alto; elected 
Cherokee County representative, 1857; delegate to the Secession 
Convention, 1861; attorney in Fort Worth at the time of his 
death, September 20, 1881. 

Lane, Drury H.—Born in Tennessee, June 25, 1828, son of 
Isham Lane, a Baptist minister; as advance agent for the entire 
Lane family, he located the present Lane homestead near Jackson¬ 
ville, 1847; entered Confederate service, 1862; married Mary 
McAnnally, 1875; died in 1921. Three of his sons still live in 
Jacksonville. One of his brothers, George W. (Wash) Lane, was 
Jacksonville postmaster. Horatio G. Lane, another brother, be¬ 
came a prominent lawyer and represented Cherokee County in the 
legislature. 

Long, John Benjamin —Born on a plantation near Douglas, 
Nacogdoches County, September 8, 1843, son of William T. 
Long, who became one of the first settlers in Rusk; enlisted 
Company C, Third Texas Cavalry, and served throughout the 
Civil War, being twice severely wounded; married Miss Emma 
Wiggins, April 9, 1869, to which union seven children were born; 
appointed delegate to National Cotton Planters Association at 
Vicksburg by Governor Ireland, 1883; ardent prohibition cam¬ 
paigner; Master of the Texas Grange, 1891; Congressman, 1891- 
93; Rusk editor; director of A. and M. College, 1895; Cherokee 
County representative, 1912; long-time elder in the Presbyterian 
Church and Sunday school superintendent; found his chief delight 
in religious work; died in Rusk, April 27, 1924. Three of his five 
surviving children live in Rusk—Mrs. J. B. Posey, Miss Emma, 
and Walter E. Long, a veteran printer on the Rusk Cherokeean 
staff who has helped to make forty-three years of local news¬ 
paper history. 


162 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Love, John Wesley —Born near Jacksonville, February 23, 
1858; married Texanna Pickens, December, 1882; owner of the 
noted Love peach orchard; directed an extensive onion-growing 
project in the Valley; one of the founders of the Jacksonville 
public school system; generous benefactor of Lon Morris Col¬ 
lege; consistent promoter of the religious and civic advancement 
of Jacksonville; died April 5, 1925. After his death, Mrs. Love 
donated part of his estate as a state park, widely known as Love’s 
Lookout. 

Lovelady, W. H.—Born in Somerville, Tennessee, July 3, 1836; 
married Miss Annice Amis to which union three children were 
born, Mrs. Lizzie Saulter of Troup being the only survivor; 
settled near Jacksonville in the ’50s and lived in Cherokee County 
the remainder of his life; enlisted in Confederate service, attain¬ 
ing the rank of captain; elected district clerk, 1866; long-time 
Jacksonville merchant, moving his business from Old Jackson¬ 
ville ; tradition makes him once the largest taxpayer in the county; 
died June 28, 1902. 

Martin, William —Born in Kentucky, April 27, 1820; moved 
to Cherokee County, February, 1846; six months later married 
Carmelita Rutherford Bean; served in the Confederate army 
under Captain Wiggins; long-time elder in the Harmony Presby¬ 
terian Church; died February 24, 1903. The Martins and the 
Dickeys, prominent families in the Central High community, are 
his descendants. 

McCord, Andrew H.—Born in Fayette County, Texas, Septem¬ 
ber 7, 1854; left an orphan at the age of eleven; moved to Rusk, 
1869, and began carrying the mail to Larissa; worked at Tribble 
sawmill at $12 per month, saving wages to enter the Rusk 
Masonic Institute; made a crop for the use of books to begin 
the study of medicine; was graduated from the Missouri Medical 
College, 1879; began to practice medicine at Atoy, where he 
married Miss Margaret Maness, June 20, 1881; appointed prison 
physician by Governor Hogg, 1892, and held the office during 
six administrations; long-time president of the Cherokee County 
Medical Association; member of the Presbyterian Church; died 
August 29, 1912. Mrs. McCord is still a citizen of Rusk. 

McKnight, John McPherson Berrien —Born in Alabama, 
August 26, 1844, son of Hiram and Martha McKnight; settled 


APPENDIX A 


163 


near Rocky Springs, west of Dialville, 1851; married Miss Mary 
Elizabeth Acker, 1867, to which union fifteen children were born, 
nine of whom survived him; member of the Rocky Springs church 
for nearly seventy-five years; president county Grange organiza¬ 
tion; active in the Farmers’ Alliance; member of the A. Jackson 
Lodge No. 29; died February 11, 1932. One son, J. B. McKnight, 
is county administrator for the National relief program. 

Newton, G. A.—Born at Farmington, Tennessee, 1823; settled 
at Larissa, 1846; elder in the Presbyterian Church; helped to 
establish Larissa College; successful planter; after serving as 
justice of the peace and tax assessor, was elected Cherokee repre¬ 
sentative in the 18th and 20th Legislatures; died at his home near 
Larissa, 1907. Two of his twelve children, W. A. and G. L. 
Newton, were Jacksonville merchants for some fifty years. W. A. 
Newton rendered signal service in establishing a cotton market 
in Jacksonville. G. L. Newton is still a Jacksonville citizen. E. M. 
Newton, another son who was formerly a Mt. Selman merchant, 
is also a Jacksonville resident. 

Noell, J. M.—Born in Lynchburg, Virginia; came to Texas in 
1860 in an effort to retire from medical practice; bought a store 
in Alto but left its supervision to his brother, C. M. Noell, and 
devoted his time to his plantation; much sought as the owner of 
the only mad-stone in the county ; five children still live in Alto— 
John, William and Billington Noell, Miss Fannie Noell and Mrs. 
Jessie Fisher. 

Perkins, James Irvine —Born at San Augustine, August 30, 
1847; father’s death in the early ’60s left him manager of large 
plantation; entered Confederate service, 1864; was graduated 
from the law department of the University of Virginia, 1871, 
and began practice at Center, Texas; married Miss Myrta Blake, 
1876, to which union seven children were born; after first wife’s 
death married Mrs. Mary Pickens (daughter of F. W. Bonner, 
a pioneer Rusk lawyer and banker), who survived him until 1934; 
moved to Rusk, 1882; in addition to service as district attorney 
and judge, served as state senator and as a member of the House 
of Representatives, sponsoring the Terrell Election Law; failing 
health ended his political career; died in Rusk, February 25, 1923. 
His sons, B. B. Perkins of Rusk and James I. Perkins, Jr., of 
Houston, have followed him in the legal profession. Three daugh¬ 
ters also survive him—Mrs. James H. Kerr of Houston, Mrs. 


164 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Tom Summers of Nacogdoches, and Miss Julia Perkins of Rusk. 

Pryor, Robert— Born in South Carolina, April, 1835; left an 
orphan at age of four; married Prudy Turner and after her 
death her sister, Nina Turner, to which unions nine children were 
born; settled near Rusk, 1859; enlisted in Confederate service, 
1861; after the war operated a gristmill and gin on his large 
plantation in the Lone Oak community; at one time operated four 
sawmills, sawing timber for the construction of the penitentiary, 
the Cotton Belt Railroad and the East Texas Baptist Institute 
(Rusk College) ; established Pryor Machine Shop and Foundry; 
furnished capital for first ice plant in Rusk; married Mrs. Vie 
Tucker, September 15, 1890, to which union three children were 
born; retired a few years before his death, January 10, 1910. 
One son, Robert Pryor II (1866-1932), succeeded him as an 
extensive sawmill operator at Lone Oak, where he was a recog¬ 
nized community leader. Another son, Ben F. Pryor, lives at 
Rusk. Mrs. Vie Pryor and two daughters, Mrs. J. C. Williams 
and Mrs, Esther Harrison, are also Rusk residents. 

Ragsdale, Edward Baxter— Born near Raleigh, North Caro¬ 
lina, 1861; emigrated to Texas, settling at old Washington on-the- 
Brazos, 1835; removed to Sabine County on account of Mexican 
hostilities and finally settled at Jacksonville, 1847; member of 
Colonel Fannin’s company, but illness kept him from Goliad; 
married Miss Martha Giffen, to which union seven children were 
born; successful planter, surveyor and merchant; died October 3, 
1883. His three surviving children, A. N., W. B. and J. E. Rags¬ 
dale, live at Jacksonville. The first two continue to operate the 
original Ragsdale business. A. N. Ragsdale is also a veteran 
surveyor and long-time director of the First National Bank. He 
recently retired after fifty-three years of service as Sunday school 
superintendent. The Ragsdale name is indelibly imprinted in the 
history of Jacksonville. 

Reagan, John B.—Born in Tennessee, March 13, 1843; son 
of Richard B. Reagan, who was later a longtime sheriff of 
Cherokee County and a U. S. Marshal; married Mary Ann 
Dossett, daughter of Asa Dossett, another Cherokee pioneer, 
1868; Rusk merchant; elected sheriff, 1884, and served some 
twenty years; superintendent of the Confederate Home during 
the Campbell administration; died September 24, 1909. Probably 
no family surpasses the Reagan record for “sheriffing.” Forest 


APPENDIX A 


165 


Reagan, now of San Antonio, followed his father and grand¬ 
father in this Cherokee County office. Left alone in the old home, 
Mrs. John B. Reagan is still one of Rusk’s loved pioneers. 

Shook, Jefferson —Emigrated from Missouri to Texas in 1843 
as an itinerant Methodist minister with his circuit extending from 
Red River to the Gulf; continued active in the ministry until his 
death; practiced law in Rusk and became district attorney; mayor 
of Rusk, 1866; established community known as Shook’s Bluff 
on the Neches River; died while conducting a meeting in Sulphur 
Springs, 1874. A son, Jefferson Early Shook, was a Rusk lawyer 
and newspaper man. A grandson, W. H. Shook, also chose law as 
his profession, serving the county as attorney and Rusk as mayor 
before moving his headquarters to Dallas. A great-grandson, John 
Louis Shook, is now beginning a legal career. 

Singletary, Thomas H.—Born in Rankin County, Mississippi, 
June 24, 1841, one of the five children of Thomas and Peggy 
Harrison Singletary; accompanied parents to Cherokee County, 
1846, settling in the Shiloh community; enlisted Company E, 
Seventh Texas Infantry, 1861, being once severely wounded, 
twice captured and promoted to a first lieutenantcy; after the 
war became a successful planter; tax collector, 1886-90; elected 
sheriff, 1896; twice married, first to Margie Ann King in 1865 
and, after her death, to Mary Crocker, 1896, eleven children being 
born to these unions; died February 17, 1924. Two of his sur¬ 
viving sons, Ed Singletary of Rusk and T. H. Singletary of the 
Oakland community, are merchants. Three daughters also live 
in the county—Mrs. Athelston Holcomb of Alto, Mrs. John 
Smith of the Holcomb community, and Mrs. Henry Pryor of 
Rusk. 

Smith, Thomas —Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, October 
16, 1800; moved to Georgia and then to Alabama, where he 
married and became a wealthy planter; moved to a 1400-acre 
plantation near Larissa, 1842, the family making the trip in a 
fifteen hundred dollar carriage, with “Uncle Dan” as coachman; 
here, after a log house had served as temporary quarters, he 
built the most pretentious dwelling of ante-bellum days, widely 
known as the “Cherokee Mansion” and furnished, in part, with 
New York and Alabama products; served as a member of the 
Larissa College board of trustees; died October 13, 1864. Four 


166 A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


generations of Smiths called “Cherokee Mansion” home, the 
J. W. Smiths being the last to occupy it. 

Spain, J. J.—Born in Jackson, Mississippi, December 20, 1829; 
married Miss Martha McClure, April 28, 1855; successful archi¬ 
tect; served four years in the Confederate army; came to Texas 
to recover his fortune; settled in Cherokee County at the inter¬ 
section of the Rusk-Linwood and Alto-Hatchett Ferry roads; 
acquired extensive plantation on which he operated a gristmill, 
a flour mill and a sawmill; donated lumber for churches of all 
denominations, together with his services as architect; frequently 
paid tuition for children without means of an education; died 
July 28, 1916. Mrs. Mattie Long of Rusk is the only one of his 
children living in Cherokee County. 

Summers, James William— Born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 
September 13, 1846; came to Cherokee County at the age of four; 
married Miss Sallie M. Francis, December 31, 1874, to which 
union five children were born; Rusk merchant for some twenty- 
seven years; one of the founders of the First National Bank; 
supporter of all civic improvement programs; rendered invaluable 
aid in financing the building of the East Texas Baptist Institute 
(Rusk College) ; steward in the Methodist Church and long-time 
Sunday school superintendent; died November 22, 1903. His 
only surviving children, Mrs. Will Copeland and E. L. Summers, 
live in Rusk. A grandson, Summers A. Norman, is a Jacksonville 
attorney. 

Templeton, John Allen —Born in Bentonville, Arkansas, De¬ 
cember 15, 1844; grew up on a farm which his father opened, 
1846, in what was then wilderness near Jacksonville; enlisted in 
Captain R. B. Martin’s cavalry (Company I, Tenth Texas), 1861; 
captured at the battle of Chickamauga and held prisoner at Camp 
Douglas for nineteen months; married Miss Adelia Fuller, daugh¬ 
ter of Doctor J. B. Fuller of Jacksonville, 1876; long-time Jack 
sonville merchant; an authority on Cherokee history, the Temple¬ 
ton scrapbooks being a much sought fund of information; died 
in Jacksonville, 1931. His four surviving children live in Jack¬ 
sonville—Mrs. D. M. Melvin, Mrs. Ralph McDougle, Doctor 
A. F. Templeton, and Miss Hazel Templeton. 

Whitman, Mertice J.—Born in Georgia, May 1, 1845; moved 
with his parents to Starrville, Smith County, 1858; enlisted in 


APPENDIX A 


167 


Company A, Fourteenth Texas Cavalry, 1861; merchant in 
Starrville in reconstruction era; first married Miss Jennie Bloom¬ 
field, 1870, to which union one son was born, Walter B. Whit¬ 
man of New York; married a second time to Mrs. Judith Bloom¬ 
field, Lee Whitman of Alto being the only child of this union; 
opened law office in Rusk, 1873; county attorney, 1876-82; 
county judge, 1882-90; died April 23, 1913. 

Willson, Samuel Andrew —Born in San Augustine County, 
January 9, 1835; admitted to the bar at the age of seventeen by 
a special act of the Legislature; attorney for the Fifteenth Judicial 
District, 1856-60; a lieutenant and later a captain in Hood’s 
Brigade; severely wounded at Sharpsburg and taken prisoner at 
Gettysburg; called from law practice at Woodville to serve as 
district judge, 1866; began law practice at Rusk, 1868; district 
attorney, 1869; appointed by Governor Coke as one of committee 
to codify laws under the new constitution; member of the Court 
of Appeals, 1882-91; died January 24, 1892. Three daughters, 
Mrs. R. A. Barrett, Mrs. B. C. Hosmer, and Mrs. J. H. Meeks, 
live in Rusk. A son, Priest Willson, born and reared in Rusk, 
was for more than twenty years a member of the Court of Civil 
Appeals. He died October 16, 1932. 


APPENDIX B 


Cherokee County Officials 
1934 


Frank L. Devereux__ 

J. W. Chandler, Jr_ 

J. A. Smith- 

A. M. Vining_ 

F. C. Bingham- 

C. L. Arnwine_ 

J. W. Pearson- 

E. S. Erwin- 

Mrs. Eugene Dupree. 
W. H. Mason_ 

B. M. Ray- 

J. T. Graves_ 

A. M. Jordan_ 

L. T. Moore_ 


-Judge 

_Attorney 

_Sheriff 

_District Clerk 

-County Clerk 

_._Tax Assessor 

__Tax Collector 

—Superintendent of Schools 

_Treasurer 

.Commissioner Precinct No. 1 
.Commissioner Precinct No. 2 
.Commissioner Precinct No. 3 
-Commissioner Precinct No. 4 
_Surveyor 


168 


















BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Barron, S. B.: The Lone Star Defenders. r 

Brown, John Henry: History of Texas from 1685-1892. 

Crockett, George L.: Two Centuries in East Texas. 

Ford and Brown: Larissa. 

Gammel: Laws of Texas. 

Moore, Sue: Life of John Benjamin Long (A Thesis). 

Muckleroy, Anna: Indian Policy of the Republic of Texas, South¬ 
west Historical Quarterly. 

Posey, J. B.: A History of Cherokee County (A Thesis). 

Reagan, John H.: Expulsion of the Cherokees from East Texas, 
Quarterly of the Texas Historical Association, Vol. I. 
Stanley, Mildred: Cherokee Indians in Smith County, Texas His¬ 
tory Teachers' Bulletin, October 22, 1924. 

Winkler, E. W.: The Cherokee Indians in Texas, Texas Histori¬ 
cal Quarterly, Vol. VII. 

Woldert, Doctor Albert: The Last of the Cherokees in Texas. 
Yoakum, Henderson: History of Texas. 

The archives of the State of Texas at Austin, official records in 
Cherokee and Nacogdoches counties, the minutes of the Rusk 
Transportation Company, copies of early newspapers and private 
collections of historical documents, including the George L. 
Crockett Collection in the Stephen F. Austin State Teachers' 
College Library, have also furnished invaluable information. 


169 




INDEX TO NAMES 


A 

Aber, 89, 154 
Able, 130, 134 

Acker, 101, 109, 116, 118, 136, 145, 154 
Adams, 101, 114, 115, 116, 120, 127, 
143, 148 
Adkinson, 27 
Agnew, 116, 159 
Ahearn, 125 
Albritton, 108, 137 

Alexander, 65, 76, 90, 95, 100, 107, 110, 
141, 148, 154 

Allen, 38, 121, 124, 125, 126, 135, 147 
Allison, 28 

Alto, 36, 51, 72, 74, 90, 108, 115, 116, 
118, 124-126 
Anderson, 49, 62, 100 
Andrews, 88, 136 
Applewhite, 143 

Armstrong, 51, 107, 125, 134, 160 

Arnwine, 117, 143, 144, 147, 168 

Ashmore, 150 

Atchinson, 143 

Atoy, 150 

Ault, 145 

Austin, 2, 36 

A vara, 143 

Aycock, 65, 131 

B 

Bacon, 128, 129 

Bagley, 95, 113, 116, 121, 155 

Bailey, 117, 143, 145, 149 

Baker, 28, 82, 101, 120, 128 

Ball, 142, 147 

Ballew, 117, 146 

Banks, 34 

Barcus, 107 

Barker, 52, 65, 68 

Barnes, 149 

Barnett, 140 

Barr, 15, 16, 124 

Barrett, 85, 102, 167 

Barron, 63, 70, 71, 74, 110, 122, 131 

Barsola, 150 

Bartee, 28 

Bates, 149 

Bauer, 131 

Bays, 133 

Beall, 28, 53, 90, 120, 155 


Bean, 4, 19 ff, 26, 30, 36, 38 
Beard, 107, 121, 122, 146 
Becton, 127 
Beeman, 121 
Bell, 41, 127, 142 
Benge, 14, 146, 147, 149 
Berry, 122, 150 

Berryman, 17, 19, 90, 116, 124, 125, 126 
Billik, 140 
Binford, 122 
Bingham, 168 
Black, 27, 52, 90, 129, 142 
Blackjack, 108, 150 
Blakey, 114 

Blankenship, 91, 115, 120 
Blasingame, 105 
Blevins, 81, 84 
Blount, 88, 116 
Boger, 107 
Boles, 95 

Bolton, 91, 106, 114, 116, 135, 137, 143, 
147, 155 

Bone, 52, 120, 140, 141 
Bonner, 36, 42, 51, 52, 65, 69, 70, 71, 
74, 85, 104, 107, 113, 126, 131, 155 
Boone, 21, 27, 29, 82, 105, 125, 148 
Bounds, 144 
Bowdon, 38 
Bowie, 5, 21, 36 
Bowles, 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, 13, 27 
Bowling, 143 
Bowman, 88, 149 
Boyd, 125, 126, 131, 156 
Box, 23 ff, 33, 53, 120, 136, 137 
Brachen, 130 
Bradford, 101, 121 
Bradshaw, 26 
Bragg, 148 
Brake, 52 
Branham, 146, 147 
Breithaupt, 128 
Brewer, 149 
Bridges, 134, 144 
Brigman, 147 

Brittain, 51, 52, 76, 126, 130, 149 
Brock, 117 
Brooks, 140 
Broome, 38, 130, 146 
Brown, 8, 53, 91, 105, 111, 112, 120, 135, 
136, 137, 140, 146, 156 
Brunswick, 95 

171 


172 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Bulah, 150 
Burke, 129, 149 
Burleson, 38 

Burnet, 24, 25, 28, 52, 145 
Burnham, 23 
Burns, 148 
Burton, 117, 141 
Burwell, 148 
Bush, 131, 132 

Butler, 29, 52, 90, 107, 118, 125 
Byrd, 71 

C 

Cameron, 126, 130, 142 
Campbell, 52, 65, 66, 105, 129, 134, 140, 
146, 151 ff 
Campground, 150 
Canady, 45 

Cannon, 35, 36, 43, 52, 70, 126, 135, 146, 
156 

Caperton, 127 
Carey Lake, 92 
Carlton, 97, 141 
Carmichael, 142 
Carr 149 

Carter, 35, 44, 126, 128, 130 

Casey, 145 

Castleberry, 52 

Caston, 122 

Caver, 132 

CCC Camp, 90 

Central High, 150 

Chandler, 52, 53, 144, 168 

Chapman, 52, 121, 149 

Chase, 127 

Cherokee Indians, 2 ff 

Chessher, 135, 148, 156 

Chester, 52 

Chevaillier, 30 

Childers, 142 

Childs, 117 

Chronister, 87 

Churchill, 116 

Claiborne, 82, 101, 121, 157 

Clapp, 135, 140 

Clarke, 48, 52, 100, 127, 148 

Cleaver, 142 

Cloud, 52 

Cloyd, 129 

Clyburn, 101 

Coates, 148 

Cobb, 28, 134, 136 

Cobble, 52, 114, 118 

Cocke, 106 

Coke, 38, 62, 72, 78 

Cole, 64, 105, 144 

Coleman, 81, 121, 150 

Collier, 52, 82 

Collins, 94 125 


Colli ton, 91, 92 
Comer, 87, 130, 142, 145 
Concord, 150 
Conner, 34, 142 

Cook, 27, 28, 34, 35, 38, 40, 107, 122, 
126, 131 
Coolidge, 122 
Cooper, 124 
Copeland, 126 
Corine, 150 

Coupland, 35, 126, 129, 132, 142, 157 

Cove Springs, 150 

Cowan, 116 

Cox, 110, 137 

Craft, 96, 145 

Crawford, 45, 52 

Cribb, 145 

Crosby, 27 

Cross, 142 

Crossland, 34 

Crume, 146 

Culp, 48 

Cuney, 147 

Cunningham, 116 

Curtis, 129, 132 

D 

Dalby, 143 
Daniel, 52, 85 
Darby, 143, 144 
Dashiell, 117 
Daugherty, 38 
Davenport, 15, 16, 124 
Davies, 106 

Davis, 49, 52, 64, 71, 72, 95, 100, 118, 
122, 126, 138, 144 
Davidson, 149 
Day, 87 
Dean, 120, 133 
Deaton, 122 
DeBard, 133 
DeBusk, 139 
Deckard, 52, 126 
Decker, 88, 90, 116 
Dement, 122, 145 
Dendy, 147 
Denman, 140 
Denson, 29, 37, 51 
Derrough, 149 
DeVaney, 143 
Devereaux, 53, 116, 168 
Dewberry, 140 

Dial, 87, 116, 142, 145, 149, 157 
Dialville, 51, 108, 116, 145 
Dickinson, 53, 82, 85, 95, 114 130, 145, 

Dicks, 145 
Dickson, 144 
Dill, 16 ff 


INDEX TO NAMES 


173 


Dillard, 32, 43, 71, 126 
Dilley, 115 

Dixon, 45, 100, 136, 138, 156 

Dodson, 137, 142, 143, 148 

Dolby, 142 

Donley, 52, 157 

Donley, 52, 157 

Dorough, 102 

Dossett, 111, 126, 164 

Dotson, 143 

Doty, 65, 66, 124, 125 

Douglas, 18, 112, 135, 158 

Dove, 108 

Dover, 96 

Drake, 138, 142 

Dublin, 141 

DuBose, 52, 149 

Duff, 117 

Duke, 65, 112 

Dumas, 129 

Duncan, 24 

Dunning, 140 

Dupree, 168 

Durham, 149 

Durrett, 145 

Durst, 5, 16, 18, 23, 27, 30, 35, 87 
Duty, 142, 148 

E 

Earle, 122, 133, 134, 136, 158 

Early, 45 

Easter, 30 

Edwards, 82, 141 

Egbert, 65 

Eidom, 142 

Ellis, 129, 132, 145 

Emmaus, 150 

Engledow, 28, 65, 142 

Erwin, 44, 52, 109, 140, 168 

Etheridge, 148 

Evans, 30, 52, 131, 142, 144, 160 

Evarts, 51 

Everett, 88, 143 

Ewing, 140 

Ezell, 147 

F 

Face, 122 
Fain, 136 
Falvey, 117, 149 
Fariss, 87, 102, 142, 145 
Farmer, 127 
Fastrill, 88 
Felps, 100, 145 
Fendley, 136 
Ferguson, 28, 117 
Field, 3, 4 
Finch, 51 
Findley, 130, 131 
Finley, 121, 133, 134, 137 


Fisher, 125, 126, 134, 158 
Fite, 137 
Fitzgerald, 95 
Fleager, 114 
Fling, 144 

Florence, 90, 116, 119 
Flowers, 142 
Foard, 65, 66 
Ford, 111, 114, 116, 117 
Forest, 117, 149 
Forest Hill, 19, 29 
Forrest, 139 
Fortner, 117 
Fowler, 52 
Fox, 130 

Francis, 51, 65, 70, 74, 104, 116, 120, 
131 

Frazer, 52, 131 
Frizzell, 29, 30, 125 
Fry, 135 

Fuller, 52, 106, 120, 122 
Fullerton, 143 

G 

Gallatin, 75, 108, 117, 144 

Gammage, 52, 62, 131 

Garner, 117, 144 

Garrett, 53 

Gaston, 52 

Gates, 28, 30 

Gee, 28 

Ghent, 146 

Gibbs, 24 ff 

Gibson, 27, 28, 33, 34, 35, 52, 53, 116, 
117, 120, 126, 129, 130, 133, 140, 159 
Gideon, 34 
Giffen, 134 
Gilbert, 142 
Gilbreath, 143 
Gill, 143 
Gilliam, 122 

Givens, 43, 51, 126, 130, 132 
Glass, 39, 145 
Glenn, 121 

Glidewell, 52, 127, 134 
Goetzman, 88 
Gooch, 116 
Goodridge, 137 
Goodson, 98, 135, 145 
Goodwin, 34, 149 
Gover, 135 
Graber, 70 
Gragard, 135 
Grange Hall, 31 
Graves, 168 
Gray, 52 
Gready, 152 
Green, 37, 41, 66, 131 


174 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Gregg, 26, 52, 74, 78, 81, 98, 114, 118, 
132 

Griffin, 51, 142 
Grimes, 52, 135 
Grisby, 122 
Grisham, 145 

Guinn, 52, 53, 70, 78, 79, 84, 95, 97, 102, 
104, 105, 108, 111, 118, 126, 129, 132, 
143, 159 
Guy, 134 

H 

Haberle, 88, 116, 154 
Hackett, 28 
Hackney, 98 
Halbert, 145 
Hamilton, 28, 122 
Hammon, 81, 122 
Hardaway, 149 
Hardgraves, 133 
Harrington, 140 

Harris, 48, 51, 103, 116, 125, 126, 127, 
145 

Harrison, 28, 30, 115, 125, 160 

Harry, 52, 125 

Hasinai, 1, 2 

Hassell, 24 

Hatch, 52 

Hatchett, 36, 150, 157 

Hatton, 115, 117 

Haws, 145 

Heath, 144 

Heermans, 121 

Henderson, 144, 148 

Hendricks, 52 

Hendry, 105, 106, 129, 132 

Henry, 43, 65, 126, 142, 144, 149, 150 

Hensley, 148 

Herndon, 38, 74, 147 

Herring, 148 

Herrington, 144, 149 

Hicks, 23, 27, 48, 51, 66, 131 

Hilencamp, 149 

Hill, 23, 125 

Hobbs, 48 

Hodge, 95, 130 

Hogan, 115 

Hogg, 19, 38, 43, 44, 49, 52, 62, 83, 103, 
104, 110, 128, 129, 151 ff 
Holcomb, 34, 90, 118, 122, 125, 150, 160 
Holmes, 117, 143 
Holsomback, 147 
Hood, 38, 122 
Hoppie, 108 

Houston, 6, 11, 12, 27, 33, 36, 38, 82 
Howard, 115, 116, 117 
Hubbard, 38 
Hu f smith, 115 
Hughes, 122, 134 


Humphrey, 92, 149 
Hundley, 33 
Hunter, 3, 4 
Hurst, 120 
Huston, 132, 160 
Hutchinson, 137 

I 

Imboden, 120 
Ingle, 134 
Irby, 33, 126, 130 
Ironton, 148 
Irving, 103, 104, 125 
Irwin, 117, 143 
Isaacs, 34, 134 
Isgate, 121 
I vie, 117 

J 

Jackson, 48, 49, 51, 70, 111, 126, 133 
Jacksonville, 46, 51, 71, 72, 75, 97, 98, 
100, 101, 105, 107, 108, 112, 114, 115, 
116, 117, 118, 133 ff 
Jacobs, 150 
Jameson, 52, 114 
Jamieson, 52 

Jarratt, 95, 96, 97, 116, 135, 145, 147 
Jasper, 52 
Java, 146 

Jenkins, 51, 122, 144, 160 
Jennings, 52, 62, 130, 142, 150, 161 
Johnson, 52, 65, 131, 134, 140 
Johnston, 145 
Joiner, 45 
Jolly, 129 

Jones, 28, 66, 95, 120, 122,131,142, 143, 
145 

Jordan, 27, 117, 168 
Joss, 104, 105 
Jowell, 134 
Justice, 122 

K 

Kehm, 76 

Kendrick, 28, 142 

Kerr, 109, 115, 117, 163 

Kennedy, 134 

Key, 114 

Kilgore, 126 

Killough, 6 ff, 33, 34, 44 

Kimball, 48 

Kimble, 16 ff 

Kinbro, 134 

Kinchelo, 134 

Kirksey, 52, 125 

Koher, 124 

Knox, 65, 128 

Knoxville, 46, 51, 141, 142 


INDEX TO NAMES 


175 


L 

Lacy, 8, 10, 12, 26, 33, 36 
Lamar, 1, 12 

Lane, 122, 127, 134, 148, 161 
Lang, 48, 126 

Larissa, 40, 44, 45, 72, 100, 140 

Larson, 148 

La Salle, 1, 2, 36 

Latham, 149 

Lawlor, 135 

Lefler, 107 

Lewis, 24, 27, 51, 53, 115, 131, 148 

Liles, 143, 148 

Linder, 140 

Lindsey, 52, 133, 145 

Linwood, 30 

Lippman, 124 

Lipsitz, 87 

Littlejohn, 87, 117 

Lively, 147 

Lloyd, 52, 148 

Locke, 128 

Lockranzie, 29 

Lone Oak, 87, 150 

Lone Star, 106, 142 

Long, 39, 44, 62, 71, 100, 101, 108, 111, 
126, 129, 130, 140, 141, 160, 161 
Looney, 150 

Love, 91, 95, 100, 114, 162 
Lovelady, 99, 135, 136, 162 
Luckett, 36 
Lunsford, 145 
Lyford, 138 

M 

Mallard, 70, 74, 104, 116, 117, 131 
Malone, 28 
Maness, 150, 162 
Maples, 65, 68, 134, 135 
Maris, 142 

Marshall, 42, 127, 128 
Martin, 38, 52, 64, 122, 126, 129, 130, 
132, 134, 136, 142, 144, 148, 150, 162 
Mason, 49, 137, 168 
Matkin, 141 
Matlock, 134 
Matthews, 122, 125 
May, 27 

Maydelle, 108, 117, 147 
Maynard, 122 
Meador, 116, 145, 147 
Meazles, 145 
Mecklin, 138 
Melton, 144 
Mendenhall, 134 
Meredith, 27 
Middleton, 52 
Midkiff, 20 


Miller, 29, 39, 114, 116, 126, 127, 129, 
130, 132, 145 

Mitchell, 43, 104, 124,126,127, 128, 148 
Mixon, 150 
Moffatt, 30 

Montgomery, 99, 143, 147 
Moore, 28, 43, 51, 83, 109, 117, 118, 
129, 145, 146, 147, 168 
Morgan, 107 
Morrill, 95, 98 
Morris, 71, 107,136, 142 
Morrison, 130 
Morrow, 144 
Morton, 145 

Moseley, 33, 38, 52, 120, 126, 131 

Mound Prairie, 1, 2 

Mt. Comfort, 46, 146 

Mt. Hope, 150 

Mt. Olive, 45, 46 

Mt. Selman, 108, 117, 141 

Mt. Sterling, 16, 26 

Mt. Zion, 46 

Muckleroy, 22, 124 

Mullins, 65, 128 

Murray, 148 

Musick, 27, 116 

Myers, 28 

Me 

McCallom, 49, 137 
McCord, 90, 95, 116, 129, 162 
McClure, 116, 125, 137 
McCracken, 147 
McCrimmon, 142 
McCuistion, 27 
McCullough, 134 
McDonald, 52, 82, 122 
McDougle, 52 
McDugald, 51 

McEachern, 49, 51, 105, 110, 126, 131 
McElroy, 122 

McFarland, 97, 120, 136, 137,138 

McGaughey, 30 

McGill, 121 

McGregor, 28 

McGrew, 130 

McKee, 44, 48, 97, 100, 140, 141 
McKinley, 148 
McKinney, 134, 135 
McKnight, 42, 43, 100, 145, 162 
McLeroy, 49 
McMullen, 132 
McNaughton, 138 

N 

Neely, 70, 74, 90, 131 
Nees, 116 
Nelson, 28 
Nevins, 105 


176 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


New Birmingham, 80 ff, 93 
Newburn, 108, 138 
Newland, 49 

Newton, 71, 112, 115, 137, 140,141, 163 
Nicholson, 144 
Nickerson, 150 
Noell, 40, 52, 124, 125, 163 
Norman, 53, 114, 116, 117, 120, 122, 
142, 143 
Norris, 115 
Northcutt, 148 
Norton, 146 
Nunn, 107 

O 

Oakland, 150 
Obar, 122 
Ochiltree, 39 

Odom, 28, 41, 53, 82, 118, 122, 131, 144, 
145, 147, 149 
O’Hair, 142 
Old Palestine, 46 
Oliver, 117, 149 
Oppenheimer, 131 
Orthwine, 90 
Osgood, 130 
Ousley, 99 
Owen, 129, 132, 148 
Ozment, 130 

P 

Padon, 129, 137 
Palmer, 90, 99, 125 
Pardew, 146 
Parks, 33, 131 
Parnell, 143 
Parrish, 115, 116, 120 
Parsons, 43, 51, 130 
Partlow, 11 
Patton, 105, 106, 149 
Payne, 123 
Peacock, 51, 144, 155 
Pearson, 168 
Peevey, 20 

Perkins, 52, 53, 90, 117, 118, 120, 122, 
163 

Perry, 121 
Phifer, 105 

Philleo, 66, 70, 104, 105, 126, 130 

Phillips, 101, 138 

Pickens, 123 

Piedras, 4, 5 

Pierce, 142, 148 

Pine Springs, 46 

Pine Town, 51, 146 

Pinson, 148 

Plair, 148 

Pleasant Grove, 46 

Ponta, 46, 101, 117, 143 


Pool, 28, 149 
Pope, 142 
Porter, 52 
Posey, 36, 147 
Powdrill, 30 
Powell, 117 
Prather, 122 
Price, 101, 147 
Priest, 52, 65, 126, 130 
Priestly, 144 
Prigmore, 149 
Primrose, 150 
Prince, 117 
Pritchett, 149 

Pryor, 27, 87, 118, 131, 164, 165 

Q 

Quaide, 142 

R 

Ragsdale, 101, 106, 111, 134, 135, 164 

Raguet, 30 
Raines, 44, 51 
Ramsey, 52 
Ratcliff, 146 
Rawls, 27, 149 
Ray, 52, 168 
Read, 145 

Reagan, 1, 12, 21, 38, 48, 70, 71, 74, 
101,122, 129,164 
Redden, 143 
Redlawn, 150 
Reed, 27, 28, 131 
Reese, 148 
Reeves, 142, 148 
Reklaw, 117, 143 
Renfro, 45, 48, 134 
Renn, 131 
Reynolds, 72, 148 
Rhome, 62, 134, 135 
Richardson, 107, 144 
Richey, 117, 122, 143 
Richmond, 95 
Rierson, 140 
Rivers, 105 
Roach, 117, 147 

Roark, 21, 22, 26, 27, 29, 33, 34, 35, 37, 
46, 60, 125 
Roberts, 38, 108 
Robinson, 52 
Roddy, 123 
Rogers, 105, 110, 127 
Ross, 65, 72, 73, 123, 145, 148 
Rounsaville, 90, 115 ,/.J 

Rountree, 52, 130, 134, 142 
Rowe, 130 
Rozelle, 149 
Ruddle, 28 
Rude, 145 


INDEX TO NAMES 


177 


Rushing, 87, 134 

Rusk, 10, 33, 34, 36, 38, 46, 48, 51, 74, 
75, 76, 89, 102, 108, 112, 118, 126 ff, 
134 

Rusk State Hospital, 80 
Russell, 98, 143, 147, 148 
Rutherford, 34, 35 

S 

Sackett, 97 
Salem, 150 
Salmon, 142 
Sanderson, 123 
Sanford, 121 
San Patricio, 16 
Sardis, 150 
Sartain, 71 
Saunders, 122 
Schmeder, 130, 132 
Schochler, 98, 118 
Scogin, 118 
Scott, 122, 125 
Scurlock, 147 
Self, 123 

Selman, 27, 29, 30, 39, 46, 125, 141 

Sessions, 143, 149, 150 

Sevier, 18 

Shamass, 149 

Shamblin, 52, 141 

Shankles, 117 

Shanks, 52, 104, 127, 128, 134 
Sharp, 88, 96, 127 
Shattuck, 47, 98, 115, 123 
Shaw, 26, 52, 142 
Shearon, 53 
Shelton, 52, 121 
Sheriff, 67 

Sherman, 59, 99, 117, 123, 147 
Shiloh, 46 
Shipman, 137 
Shoemaker, 95, 97 
Sholley, 121 

Shook, 52, 53, 114, 116, 117, 120, 125, 
129, 132, 134, 165 
Sides, 145 
Simmons, 114 
Simpson, 102, 117, 149 
Singletary, 125, 130, 165 
Sloan, 52, 118 
Slosson, 82 

Slover, 48, 71, 88, 90, 116, 117,134, 144, 
147 

Small, 136, 137 

Smith, 29, 52, 94, 116, 117, 133, 135, 
148, 149, 165, 168 
Sneed, 148 

Social Chapel, 46, 51, 100 
Sorrels, 122 
Sory, 52, 115, 136 


Sousa, 84 
Sowell, 143 
Spain, 87, 122, 166 
Spear, 68, 136 
Spinks, 117, 149 
Spivey, 122, 125 
Spruill, 30, 135 
Stafford, 105 
Stallings, 123 
Star and Crescent, 85 
Stark, 98 
Starkey, 147 
Staunton, 107 
Steagall, 143 
Stephens, 128 
Stevens, 140 
Stewart, 106 
Stinson, 36 
Stitt, 127 
Stockton, 123, 148 
Stokes, 76 
Stone, 53 
Stout, 96 

Stovall, 48, 134, 140, 144 
Street, 49 
Striker Town, 29 
Stringer, 123 
Stripling, 52, 125 
Strother, 107 
Stuart, 52 
Sturdevant, 103 

Summers, 114, 117, 125, 132, 143, 144, 
166 

Summerfield, 90, 108,143 
Sydnor, 65, 66 

T 

Talladega, 141 
Talley, 143 
Tatham, 65 

Taylor, 52, 62, 64, 65, 96, 144, 145, 146 
Teague, 125 
Tecula, 93, 148 
Tejas, 2 

Templeton, 49, 91, 106, 110, 133, 135, 
137, 166 
Tenney, 127 
Tennison, 52, 143 
Terrell, 18, 30, 31 
Thomas, 52, 80, 147 
Thomason, 35, 146 

Thompson, 34, 65, 102, 107, 128, 130, 
135, 136, 144, 145, 149 
Thorn, 107, 127 
Tilley, 76, 135 
Tillman, 122 
Tillotson, 131 
Timmons, 28, 33 
Tipton, 121, 142, 143, 144 


178 


A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY 


Tittle, 125 
Toler, 121 

Travis, 52, 117, 118, 138 
Trimble, 129 
Troutman, 137 
Truitt, 144 
Tucker, 44, 132 
Tullar, 128 
Tumlinson, 133 
Turney, 89, 134, 144 
Turrentine, 107 
Tyra, 117 

U 

Underwood, 116 
Usher, 125 

V 

Van Zandt, 144 
Vaughn, 28, 52 
Vaught, 51, 126 
Vehlein, 24 
Vermillion, 108 
Vest, 122 

Vining, 34, 35, 51, 75, 107, 120, 126, 
168 

W 

Wade, 52, 126, 128, 141, 152 
Wadley, 140 
Waites, 148 
Waldrop, 143 

Walker, 28, 52, 96, 143, 145 
Wallace, 131, 147 
Walters, 34 
Walton, 123 
Ward, 72, 130 
Warner, 117, 149 


Watkins, 116 
Washington, 99 
Watson, 134, 146, 147 
Watters, 116, 126 
Weatherby, 117, 118, 143 
Weatherford, 66 
Weeks, 117 
Weimar, 125 
Wells, 108, 118, 149 
Westheimer, 140 
Wetter mark, 113 
White, 82, 120 
Whiteman, 90, 120 
Whitescarver, 66, 131, 132 
Whitley, 138 

Whitman, 53, 70, 102, 114, 147, 166 
Wiggins, 29, 48, 52, 65, 70, 71, 73, 74, 
104, 133 

Wightman, 51, 90, 157 
Wilkinson, 115 

Williams, 6 ff, 27, 29, 36, 42, 107, 116, 
130, 146 

Williamson, 117, 120, 138 

Willson, 45, 52, 70, 71, 110, 111, 167 

Wilson, 52, 128 

Winfield, 107 

Wolfe, 30 

Wood, 6 ff, 93 

Wooten, 134 

Wrontenberry, 121 

Y 

Yarbrough, 134 
Yeomans, 48, 128 
Yoakum, 44, 45, 100, 140 
Young, 66, 69, 93, 127 
Yowell, 19, 116 





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